Harry Potter and the Train to Nowhere
by Joshua The Evil Guy
Summary: Harry Potter, the Chosen One, dies. He took one of the trains in the dream with Dumbledore instead of going back, where all his close friends and Ginny had already been killed. The train takes him to... an arcade?
1. Level One: The Arcade

Title: "Harry Potter and the Train To Nowhere"

Summary: Harry Potter, the Chosen One, dies. He took one of the trains in the dream with Dumbledore instead of going back, where all his close friends and Ginny had already been killed. The train takes him to... an arcade?

Disclaimer: JKR owns HP and all related characters. Unedited version contains spoilers for the novel, "_Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_". Other crossovers, if any, will be noted when and where and if they happen.

Level One: _"The Arcade_"

Harry watched as Dumbledore walked away, disappearing from view, his final words hanging in the air. Alone once more in the empty and oddly white version of Kings Cross Station, Harry considered his choices. It was odd. Having choices. So much in his life, before, after, and during Hogwarts, it all felt so out of his control that he never truly had many choices. Certainly never much opportunity for exercising his ability to make those choices in the first place.

First choice, obviously, was to do as Professor Dumbledore suggested and go back. But, he had to be honest with himself, he didn't exactly have much to go back to. When he'd left the castle to fulfill his destiny, he'd seen the casualties of the earlier fighting. Remus and Tonks were dead, orphaning their infant son. George and Ginny Weasley were both dead. He'd broken up with Ginny last year to '_protect_' her, but all it had done was delay the inevitable. Hermione was lethally injured by that damned snake, managing to deliver her own killing blow as cost. Madam Pomphrey hadn't been hopeful. Ron was... Ron was a shell, waiting to die himself. And Voldemort had just killed his last Horcrux by using the Killing Curse on him one final time, thereby ensuring his defeat. No family, no friends, no girlfriend, no enemy to defeat. Nothing to look forward to.

Harry sat down on an open bench, his self-examination putting him in a bit of a depression.

Second choice, not as obvious but certainly implied, if Harry either stayed here or 'got on a train', then it could very well take Harry to Heaven where he would be reunited with his parents, Sirius, Remus, Tonks, Ginny, George, and soon to be Hermione. Where there would be no more pain, where there would be no more... of pretty much everything his life has been up to now. It was tempting. More tempting than it had any right to be. He believed it was wrong when a person found death more attractive than living their life. In fact, the only thing that stopped him from getting up and running 'into the light', in spite of that belief, was the idea that if he did that it would be the same as giving up. That did not sit well with him at all. He may not have always won, but he never just gave up without doing everything else he could have first.

Third choice... Did he have a third choice? Were his only options to go back or move on? A living hell, or a heaven where he'd quit?

"Wish there was a way I could just go back and do it all again," he mused out loud to the empty space. "But like they say on the telly, life isn't a video game, where you get as many chances as you want to get it right."

Before he could consider anything else though, a deep, soul-shaking rumbling began to shake through the station. Looking around nervously, he wondered if maybe he'd worn out his welcome in the peaceful place and was about to get cast back into life whether he wanted to or not. Thankfully he was not left to wonder for long.

Coming into the station, right in front of him almost, was a pure white gleaming silver steam locamotive, only instead of cars like the classic locamotives or the Hogwarts Express, what trailed behind it were more like what one encountered in the Underground. Subway cars in other words. As it slowly came to a stop, the doors right in front of him opened with a hiss and then everything was quiet, waiting for him to make his choice. Looking down the way Dumbledore had gone, Harry could see nothing beyond a blinding white glare past a certain distance. Looking in the opposite direction, the distance was eaten up by shadows, not total darkness but it was clear if he went that way he was choosing to go back to the life he no longer wanted. Then he looked ahead.

Six steps, that is all it took for him to walk from the bench where he sat to the open doors and to enter the train car. The doors closed with a hiss and then he was in motion. He couldn't be certain but... if he had to guess he would have thought the train was taking him in the direction of the shadows, but again he couldn't be certain.

_The Arcade_

Harry was not away of how long he stayed on that train. It might have been a few minutes, it might have been a few centuries. The next thing he knew for sure though was the train coming to a stop and the doors opening upon a place he'd only seen from the outside before. It wasn't a real place of course, but he recalled the times that the Dursleys had taken Dudley to a popular arcade in London for one of his birthdays. Minus the hundreds of kids and adults, this place was very similar.

It was a wide, open space, the ceiling almost thirty feet high, and the floor was literally covered with standing arcade video games, all lit up with animations and making noise and music pulsing in the background. The spaces in front of and between the games made the whole thing one giant, colorful, _noisy_ maze. Hesitantly stepping off the train, he head the doors hiss shut behind him, but was too distracted by everything to pay much attention. It wasn't until a minute later that he realized he wasn't hearing sounds of the train leaving.

Turning around, Harry gaped in open mouthed amazement. Behind him was a single video game, different from the others in that it was larger and more of a booth than something to stand in front of. There was no sign of there ever having been a train in the place at all!

"What the bloody hell?" Harry said to himself, the question lost amongst the noise of the arcade.

Stepping forward, he took a look at the painted graphics on the side of the larger-than-normal video game booth, to see what game it was. He found himself stunned once more, and not from a _Stupefy_. "What the bloody hell?" he repeated himself as he read the title of the game.

In bold silver and reflective lettering, stylized so the 'Y' and the 'P' both tapered off into mini-lightning bolts, the games title boldly proclaimed it to be "_Harry Potter and the Arcade_". The graphics further supported this by having a painted charicature of him beneath the title, robes waving dramatically in an unmoving wind, hair as messy as ever, scar proudly displayed, round glasses worn like some kind of superhero mask, and wand at the ready, charged with some unknown spell. There were also images of snitches, brooms, hippogriffs, a phoenix, stars, a couple Death Eaters masks at the bottom corners, and a flaming cup.

He went all the way around it, intrigued to note there were no other games nearby, leaving an open space all around it. Furthermore, there were no wires coming from the game itself. No power cables, no fiber cables, no nothing. Also, he found out why it was bigger than the rest, and even bigger than other 'booth' arcade games, which usually had a bench or seats for the players to sit upon. There was no bench, and there was actually enough room inside to stand up straight, or lay upon the floor quite comfortably without feat of cramping. When he entered the booth, the moment the curtain was closed, all the noise from the rest of the arcade was cut off with such finality that Harry's ears were left ringing at the sudden silence. He suspected it was some kind of silencing charm, and given his experiences of the day so far, he wasn't about to question a silencing charm being placed on the inside of a giant video game that was in the middle of some impossible arcade that he got to by boarding a train in an unreal Kings Cross Station, after having been hit with the Death Curse.

There was a single screen inside the booth, providing the sole source of illumination, and it was displaying an aerial view of a beautiful 3D graphic representation of Hogwarts Castle. There was a single button beneath the screen, glowing an iridescent white, the words printed in black on it; "PRESS HERE TO START". Despite looking for them, Harry found no other controls anywhere in the booth.

Faced with the prospect of the overwhelming noise outside, and just hitting the button to see what would happen, Harry decided to go ahead and get it over with. He reached out and pressed the button.

The screen faded to white. A bright white. A _very *BRIGHT*_ white! The screen soon was so bright that Harry had to shut his eyes, and pretty soon he could see nothing _*but*_ white!

When finally he could see again, everything had changed.

He wasn't in the video game booth anymore. There was no video game booth. For that matter, he didn't have a body either! He was in the open air, some five hundred feet, give or take. Then he began to descend. No, scratch that, he was falling, but without the coresponding sensation of falling. Weird.

Soon he recognized that all too (unfortunate) sight of Privet Drive from the air and pretty soon he was right in front of the door to Number 4. Odd music had begun to play. It started off with just a few notes every other second, but now it was playing ominously in the background. There was something familiar about the melody, but he couldn't place it. (AN: "Harry Potter Movies Theme Music")

Just as it reached a crescendo, the same logo he'd seen on the outside of the booth appeared in mid-air right above the door to Number 4. One by one, additional words appeared beneath the logo, seemingly on the door itself from his current point of view, but they were in mid-air the same as the game title. The words were the same silver metallic color as the title, except for two of them, which were still legible but completely black. They read;

- New Game -

**- Load Game -**

- Options -

**- Help -**

"What is this?" Harry asked himself, and then stopped as he realized that he'd heard that. Somehow, he didn't have a body, but he could still hear and speak.

Having grown up with the Dursleys, Harry hadn't had much opportunity to play any sort of video game, but Dudley was nothing if not careless with things that bored him. So while it often ran the risk of extra chores or punishment, he had once or twice gotten his hands on a game to see what it was like. Unlike Dudley who always just played it and dove right in not understanding how to even use the controller to properly play the gang, Harry always read through the instructions and read the hints and other bits of information in the games tutorial before playing so he knew what to do. Having not been given any manual or set of instructions, he decided to go with what he had to work with.

"Help," he said out loud and watch as the word was highlighted and seemed to flicker, before a harsh tone sounded as a message in a clear box appeared over the menu.

***The Help function is not available at this time. To Unlock the Help function, please see your manual.***

"What manual?" Harry cried in frustration as the view went back to the original menu.

Still, that probably explained why it was in black lettering like that. Just to be sure, he said, "Load game."

***You have no saved games at this time. There are no games to load. Please try again later.***

"So, being blacked out like that means I can't choose that one," he said to himself. "Well, I'm not about to start whatever this is without knowing more. Options." Immediately the same clear screen appeared, minus the harsh tone.

***You have 0 Achievements.***

***You have 0 Medals.***

***You have 0 Unlocked Features.***

***You have 0 Secret Areas Discovered.***

***You have 1 Avatar Unlocked.***

***You have 3 Unlocked Challenges.***

After a few moments, it reverted back to the main menu. Harry began to get angry.

"Well that was helpful! NOT!" he yelled at the words. Seeing no other path available to him, he growled out, "Fine! New game."

Suddenly he found himself spinning around and facing the street and, one by one, the street lamps began to go out until the whole street was dark. After a few moments of absolute darkness, it lifted and suddenly Harry found himself in a very different version of the pure white Kings Cross station. For one thing, it was no longer a train station, but an appearingly infinite white void... filled with pedestals... with statues of him on them...

At least he had his body back, he discovered momentarily. Going to the nearest pedestal/statue, he noticed a small plaque at the base with a button beneath it. The statue, near as he could tell, was an exact likeness of him—at 11 years old. Of course coming from a world where paintings move, talk and can even visit other paintings, the exceptional lifelike statue was nothing too impressive.

Bending over to read the plaque, it read;

Harry James Potter (11) - "Son of James and Lily Potter, was orphaned at 15 months, and sent by Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, and Rubeus Hagrid to live with his only living relative, Petunia Dursley. Raised like a House Elf, Harry is eager to make friends, but shy and reckless as he has no experience in social situations. Magical and Physical abilities are well balanced, a good choice for beginners, able to branch out into any specialty or maintain the balanced settings at a cost of making any significant development." Special Skills: Natural Flying Talent, Parselmouth.

"Bizarre," he muttered. Despite the cavernous atmosphere, the sound dropped dead at his feet, making him feel very alone and uncomfortable. Before moving away, he did notice the button below the plaque was glowing softly and it said 'SELECT' right in the middle. Harry decided against pushing that for the moment. Moving to one of the other statues, he saw an immediate difference.

The first was was very lifelike, almost like it was him and ready to jump off the pedestal and run off to Hogwarts at the first opportunity. This one he was looking at now, it was... well, it was a statue. An unpainted statue, well, except for some kind of 3-D shaded image of a closed padlock on its chest. Curious, Harry went ahead and read the plaque for this one as well.

-LOCKED-

Harry Granger (11) - "Adopted son of Dan and Emma Granger, parents of Hermione Granger. When picking their daughter up from pre-school one day, Dan and Emma noticed her playing with a young boy in rather poor clothing. After hearing young Harry's story, and witnessing how his Aunt and Uncle treated him first hand, the Grangers got the Dursleys arrested for child abuse and adopted Harry and raised him as their own. Raised by dentists with Hermione as his sister, Harry is intelligent, observant, but follows the rules regardless of the situation and is slow to trust new people. Magical abilities come more easily to this avatar, while Physical abilities take longer to level up." Special Skills: Photographic Memory, Skill Bonus: Spells (Learning and mastering spells take half the time and effort), Parselmouth.

"What the hell?" he jumped back after having gone through the entire description. He moved to the next one, which was also just a plain statue and looked at it, noting as he did that it depicted him smiling in a way that oddly reminded him of Dudley and Malfoy together.

-LOCKED-

Harry Dursley (11) - "Son of James and Lily Potter, was orphaned at 15 months, and sent by Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, and Rubeus Hagrid to live with his only living relative, Petunia Dursley. Raised as the equal brother of Dudley Dursley and beloved son of Petunia and Vernon, Harry is confident, outgoing, but more than a bit reckless and while he makes friends easily with everyone he meets, sometimes has trouble making the right choices in who those friends should be. Physical abilities far outstrip Magical abilities, has trouble grasping simple concepts of magic, Prerequisite of Martial Artist Harry and Harry Gryffindor." Special Skills: Stamina+10 per level, Skill Bonus: Sports (Anything having to do with sports of any kind is easily mastered), Skill Bonus: Fight (Learning and using fighting skills take half the time and effort to level up), Parselmouth.

"I'm in Hell," he cried, falling back from the statue. Getting up off his arse, he decided he wouldn't stand for _not_ understanding what this was, so he moved on to the next, hoping to get some answers eventually. He kept moving on to the next and the next after that, pausing only long enough to read the plaques and examine the basic features of each statue.

Harry Black (11) - "Godson of Sirius Black, who did his duty as Godfather and took care of baby Harry when his parents were murdered by Voldemort. Raised by his father's best friend, but also the reinstated Lord Black, Harry is confident, mischevious, and well educated in all levels of Wizard Society. Magical abilities are considerably higher than Physical abilities, but there is no bonus nor detriment to either. Prerequisite of Minister Harry, Prankster Harry, and Harry Slytherin." Special Skills: Charisma+10 per level, Skill Bonus: Social (Persuasion and Social based skills are learned and mastered more easily), Natural Flying Talent, Parselmouth.

Harry McGonagall (11) - "Godson of Minerva McGonagall, who was the one to retrieve Harry from his house instead of Hagrid, and never gave him up in the first place. Raised by the Hogwarts Professor's niece and her husband and later children. Harry is outgoing and intelligent, excelling at sports and physical activity, but no slouch in his education or magical skills. Default Physical abilities for this avatar are higher than the Magical abilities, but there is no inherint bonus for either. Prerequisite of Harry Gryffindor." Special Skills: Health+10 per level, Skill Bonus: Sports, Skill Bonus: Transfiguration (All Transfiguration spells are learned and mastered more quickly), Natural Flying Talent, Parselmouth.

Harry Dumbledore (10) - "When Albus saw those green eyes looking up at him, everything changed. He gave little Harry Potter to his brother to raise, often visiting every chance he got during the years. Raised by the Dumbledore brothers, Aberforth for everything a mother and father would do, Albus as the 'favorite uncle' that always brings treats, Harry is scary smart and extremely observant and insightful. Default Magical abilities are considerably higher than Physical abilities, but there is no detriment to raising the Physical abilities, but a large bonus for raising Magical abilities and related skills. Prerequisite of Harry Ravenclaw." Special Skills: Eidetic Memory, Intelligence+10 per level, Skill Bonus: Spells, Skill Bonus: Politics (Politics Skills are a wide variety, this bonus gives two for every one to those skill sets), Natural Flying Talent, Phoenix Call, Parselmouth, Child Genius (Start Hogwarts a year early!).

Harry Bones (11) - "When word got out about Harry Potter's circumstances, the Wizarding Community cried out and their most trusted member was called forth to care for their young savior. Raised by Amelia Bones alongside Susan Bones as his sister/fiancee, Harry is open, friendly, loyal and well educated in all levels of Wizard Society. Magical abilities and Physical abilities are higher than the default, but depending on player choices could go either way. Prerequisite of Harry Hufflepuff." Special Skills: Agility+10 per level, Skill Bonus: Chance (For every game of chance or high risk situation you encounter the better your odds the higher this skill gets), Natural Flying Talent, Parselmouth.

Harry Malfoy (12) - "When word got out about Harry Potter's circumstances, the Wizarding Community cried out and their most trusted member was called forth to care for their young savior. Raised by the Malfoy Family to be their secret weapon in the coming years, Harry is disillusioned towards reality and a sociopath by design, only able to express mimicry of emotion after observing others for sufficient time. Default Magical abilities far outstip Physical abilities, and there is a significant bonus on increasing Magical aligned skills over Physical ones, though no detriment to raising Physical abilities at all. Prerequisite of Harry Slytherin." Special Skills: Magic+10 per level, Skill Bonus: Social, Skill Bonus: Assassin (All skills related to the Assassin Rank and Title are given a 2 for every 1 bonus), Skill bonus: Politics, Parselmouth, Extra Training (Starts Hogwarts a year late, but stats are more than double for everything).

Harry Moody (11) - "When Albus saw those green eyes looking up at him, everything changed. He gave little Harry to his most trusted ally to prepare for the coming conflicts. Raised by Alastor 'MadEye' Moody, Harry is a paranoid little fucker who plays dirty and is an even worse prankster than the Marauders and Weasley Twins combined! Default Magical abilities are considerably higher than Physical abilities, but there is no detriment to raising the Physical abilities, but a large bonus for raising Magical abilities and related skills. Prerequisite of Harry Hufflepuff." Special Skills: Luck+10 per level, Skill Bonus: Chance, Skill Bonus: Assassin, Natural Flying Talent, Parselmouth.

Runaway Harry, Martial Artist Harry, Thief Harry, Spy Harry, Auror Harry, Mercenary Harry, Geek Harry, Minister Harry, Dragon Tamer Harry, Cursebreaker Harry, Prankster Harry, Marauder "Rednose" Harry, Potions Master Harry, Unspeakable Harry, Angry Harry, Harri Jamie Potter (and that one really threw him for a loop), Creature Harry, Casanova Harry, Harry Pendragon, Harry "Merlin" Ambrosius, Harry Le Faye, Harry Uzumaki, Harry Son, Harry Kurosaki, Hollow Harry, Harry D. Potter, Mr. Black... it went on and on and on and ON!

Eventually he came back to the lifelike statue, which was the same "Harry James Potter (11)" he'd first found. It was the only one of its kind. All the others were still and colorless. Just to see what would happen, he'd pressed a few of the buttons on the cooler looking statues. He got a screen saying something about an error, but he couldn't understand it. Having grown tired of running around with no answers, he impulsively hit the button, but instead of the same error, something different came up.

-WOULD YOU LIKE TO SELECT THIS AVATAR?-

**YES/NO**

"Avatar?" Harry repeated. Then his face lit up as the proverbial light bulb went off. "Video game," he said. "This is all a video game. Avatars... different versions of the same character, or just different characters, to play the game with. Sometimes they even have—they have different abilities... Whoa." He looked around the hall of statues—of avatars with new eyes.

"But they're all locked. Except this one. Which is me. Hey—what does it mean I've got no experience in social situations?! Whatever. Yes!" he selected the Avatar, and suddenly he was back in front of the Dursleys front door without a body. A new menu screen appeared.

***Would You Like To Play The Tutorial?***

**YES/NO**

"Now this is what I'm talking about," he said with some relief. "Yes!"

The screen disappeared and the music stopped as the door opened on its own and suddenly Harry was swallowed by the darkness beyond the threshold.

END Level One.


	2. Level Two: The Tutorial

Level Two: "_The Tutorial_"

Harry opened his eyes, and was less than pleased with what he saw. Understatement.

"What the *_fuck_*! I'm in the bloody cupboard under the bloody fucking stairs?! Are you fucking shitting me?! What the bloody hell is this fucking shit?!" he screamed, sitting up in the bed there under the stairs. He instantly noticed three things with that single motion.

Number one, he did not his his head. Given his height, and the last time he'd seen this small piece of shit stain his relatives forced him to grow up in, this should have been impossible. Number two, his voice just now had been the voice of a child. Still his voice, but his voice when he was eleven years old, not seventeen. And the real kicker; he didn't curse like this. So why was he now?

Before he could consider what to do next, the door was swung open and a big meaty hand reached in and grabbed him, pulling him out and to his feet. His Uncle Vernon then throttled him, yelling profanities in return for that which Harry had already let slip. He tried to get a word in edgewise, but every attempt made the walrus angrier until finally something snapped. It was rather loud and hard to miss, seeing as it was Harry's own neck that had snapped. Everything went black...

*_**ERROR**_*

-_Incorrect Avatar (Angry Harry) Loaded_-

_Loading..._

And then he opened his eyes and was back in the cupboard. He blinked and kept his mouth shut. As quietly as he could, he whispered, "What the bloody hell just happened?"

The same clear screen that had been there before appeared, this time with a different message in a slightly different format, like somebody had typed it out on a computer rather than painted it with a graphics program.

_"Hint #1: If you die or fail an objective, you will begin from your last Save or Checkpoint."_

_"Hint #2: Character progress is permanent. This means that even if you die you will keep all experience, items, skills, medals, etc. that you have collected. Note: Key Items and Unique Items are not retained."_

_"Hint #3: Character interactions can vary based upon both your responses as well as the avatar you are using at the moment. Different avatars have different responses to situations and familiar NPCs."_

_"Hint #4: Some features are unavailable until you unlock them in gameplay. Such as casting spells."_

_"Hint #5: Experience points are awarded for defeating enemies, mastering spells and skills, learning abilities, and overcoming challenges."_

_"Hint #6: ..."_

"Stop!" Harry growled, and the screen finally stopped scrolling and disappeared when he said, "Enough!"

Well, he thought to himself, that explains a little bit. The him that cursed every other word apparently was a demonstration of whatever this avatar thing was. Vernon killing him was to shove it in his face without having to wait till he got to Hogwarts that if he died, he just started over, exactly like a video game. And just like a new character in said video game, he was more or less at level one with zero experience and no powers or abilities at all. Which meant no magic, at least not until he got his wand back. Also, the thing seemed to be voice controlled. Recalling a feature that had been a part of every video game he'd ever heard of, he decided to try something.

"Pause," he said outloud. The world, such as it was being the cupboard under the stairs, went black, white and gray. Mostly gray. The clear screen reappeared with the words;

***Pause Menu***

_"Hints"_

_"Objectives"_

_"Level"_

_"Skills & Abilities"_

_"Challenges"_

_"Unlocked Features"_

_"Save/Load Game"_

"Hints," he said and the same list began to scroll. This time he didn't stop it. The hints went all the way to one hundred and one, and was extremely helpful. He hoped. Especially Hint #101, which informed him that to get out of the Pause menu, he didn't say 'Unpause', but 'Start'. Since he hadn't even started to 'play' yet, he didn't bother checking on saving the game and he recalled that he didn't have anything unlocked yet. So, he got out of Pause and waited for his relatives to 'wake him up'. Thankfully he didn't have long to wait.

This time, rather than him cursing like a maladjusted sailor, or Vernon throttling him until his neck snapped, it was just like every other day of his young life before Hogwarts. Aunt Petunia unlocking and rapping on the door, telling him to get breakfast ready. Dudley pounding on the stairs with every step so dust and splinters came loose with every bound, then slamming his door shut in his face before he could properly get out.

There was a horrible smell in the kitchen the next morning when Harry went in for breakfast. It seemed to be coming from a large metal tub in the sink. He went to have a look. The tub was full of what looked like dirty rags swimming in gray water.

"What's this?" he asked Aunt Petunia. Her lips tightened as they always did if he dared to ask a question.

"Your new school uniform," she said.

Harry took a moment to remember when and what this was exactly. Oh, right. Originally his relatives had planned to ship him off to some criminal school for boy or something like that. Knowing what was really going to happen, and having long forgotten the way the rest of this conversation went, he just shrugged and went, "Oh." and continued to prepare the rest of breakfast.

He also recalled that this was the day that his School Letter, well _first _school letter arrived. Even as he sat down to his meager helping of breakfast, he was on pins and needles for its arrival. Thankfully, a short while later, they heard the click of the mail slot and flop of letters on the doormat.

"Get the mail, Dudley," said Uncle Vernon from behind his paper.

"Make Harry get it."

"Get the mail, Harry." This much, Harry did remember, and he couldn't stop himself from continuing the conversation as he recalled it.

"Make Dudley get it."

"Poke him with your Smelting stick, Dudley."

Harry was already up and gone, having left his seat even as he'd spoken to the distracted Vernon. He was also somewhat looking forward to his aunt and uncle going through the hilarious efforts to prevent him from getting his letter. Even moreso, he was looking forward to seeing Hagrid again.

Briefly sorting through it to confirm the letter was indeed there, Harry separated it out from the rest and went to put the rest in front of Vernon at the breakfast table. Same as before, just as Harry was sitting down, Dudley's chubby hand suddenly reached out and snatched it from his hands.

"Dad!" said Dudley suddenly. "Dad, Harry's got something!"

Harry watched as the piglike boy waved it around, when it was jerked sharply out of his hand by Uncle Vernon.

"That's mine!" yelled Harry, if only to keep up appearances.

"Who'd be writing to you?" sneered Uncle Vernon, shaking the letter open with one hand and glancing at it. His face went from red to green faster than a set of traffic lights. And it didn't stop there. Within seconds it was the grayish white of old porridge.

"P-P-Petunia!" he gasped.

Dudley tried to grab the letter to read it, but Uncle Vernon held it high out of his reach. Aunt Petunia took it curiously and read the first line. For a moment it looked as though she might faint. She clutched her throat and made a choking noise.

"Vernon! Oh my goodness—Vernon!"

Harry was too distracted from their further antics however, as a big notice had appeared just behind the Dursleys, the same kind of error screen that came up when he selected game options that were not yet available. Originally, he'd just keep trying to get his letter until Vernon banished him and then for the entire rest of the month the Dursleys would be harrassed by owls and Hogwarts letters appearing in every nook and craney of the house! According to the message that had appeared, apparently that was no longer the case.

***GAME OVER***

_"You failed to acquire your Hogwarts Letter and now will have to go to St. Brutus's Secure Centre for Incurably Criminal Boys and never get to Hogwarts."_

*Restart From Last Checkpoint?*

**YES****/****NO**

"Uh, yes?" Harry said out loud and before the Dursley's could look up from his letter, the world faded to white and then black and then he was back in the cupboard.

"Wait a second here," he said to himself out loud. "I have to actually... get my first letter, or I don't go at all? That isn't how it happened!"

Harry had lost count of how many times he'd gone through 'breakfast with the Dursleys' now. It kept forcing him to start over every time he failed to keep his letter out of their hands. Once, he'd even chosen no, and all that had happened was he found himself back on the main menu with nothing else to do. It hadn't even allowed him to go back to that arcade place. Stupid video game!

He'd tried hiding the letter on his person, with the baggy clothing he was sporting it should have been easy enough. Petunia spotted it after he tried to leave the table to do the dishes—Game Over. He tried slipping it under his cupboard door on his way back to the kitchen. Vernon found it when he'd put Harry in there for some imagined slight of Dudley's—Game Over. He tried hiding it in every possible place imagineable in the house in the amount of time he had between being told to get the mail and them all shouting about how long it was taking him. Dudley found it within minutes of finishing his breakfast, no matter where it was hidden, and turned it over to his parents for a reward—Game Over.

"This is getting ridiculous," he grumbled to himself as he got the mail, again. Then he stopped. Since the game wasn't doing it like it was done the first time around, why should he play by the old rules?

He know what this letter was, he knew about magic. He knew about Diagon Alley and several different ways of getting there, albeit most of them required the use of a wand. The Game probably wouldn't let him Apparate, but he knew about the Floo and... and he knew about Mrs. Figg! She was Dumbledore's spy on him at Privet Drive, a member of the Order of the Phoenix!

Harry dropped the rest of the mail on the end table next to the door and then unlocked said door and walked right out it. He tore open the seal on the back of the envelope, after taking a moment to once again appreciate the elaborate Hogwarts seal, and then quickly opened the letter and began to read.

"_Dear Mister Potter, We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted_

_at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31. Yours sincerely, Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress_."

"You know," he mumbled to himself as he walked quickly down to Mrs. Figg's house, "I kept forgetting that Professor McGonagall was the Deputy Headmistress. _She_ should have been the Headmaster if Fifth Year, not Umbit... Umbridge. Oh, don't tell me I'm still in some other kind of avatar!"

Recalling that Mrs. Figg had a lot of cats, and likewise remembering that most of them were probably kneazles or kneazle cross-breeds, he decided to see what brutal honesty got him and go from there. Not like it mattered. Worst case scenario, he loses his letter all over again and everything starts over. Again!

He knocked on the door and waited. A few moments after, he knocked again. Still no sounds from inside, he knocked a third time. He waited, just not patiently. Eventually, after the tenth time knocking, Mrs. Figgs answered her door, the cats at her feet struggling to get out.

"Yes, what is it boy? Your aunt and uncle needing something again?" she asked.

Seeing her in crutches, he vaguely recalled her being injured by one of her cats recently. Knowing what he did about her, he asked without thinking, "Why not just have Madam Pomphrey come by and heal that for you? I'm sure Professor Dumbledore wouldn't mind."

The squib spy for the Order of the Phoenix blinked and did a double-take. "Excuse me?" she shrieked. "What did you just say boy?"

"Don't you mean 'Boy-Who-Lived'?" Harry grinned cheekily at her. "I just got my Hogwarts letter. Mind if I use your Floo? I'd like to get my wand before my relatives find me missing. Oh, but I'll need gold for that, won't I? And Hagrid has my key. Huh, didn't think this out as much as I'd thought. Eh, planning is for losers. Need to be able to adapt to situations on the fly. Part of what... I'm rambling, aren't I? More of a Hermione thing that is. Mrs. Figgs? Would you mind if I used your Floo? I promise to reimburse you as soon as I am able."

"I have no idea what you are talking about! Go away!" she then slammed the door in his face, startling him somewhat.

Harry blinked, then looked down at his letter. "OK, that didn't work. What else can I try? Knight Bus? No, need a wand to flag them down. Hm, how'd we get there in the first place? London Underground, of course! Now, where is the nearest station?"

Harry got another Game Over the moment Vernon ran him down with his car. Didn't help that nobody was around, probably leading the walrus to believe he could get away with it. Next three tries, Harry left the moment the mail arrived with the letter, and spent the rest of the time looking for the nearest entrance to the London Underground. He finally found it on the third try, only to run into a new set of problems.

He had no money. He had no idea which stop or line was nearest the Leaky Cauldron. And worst of all, apparently he was on some kind of time limit as he discovered on his _next_ attempt the moment the sun set, and he'd neither been caught nor killed by the Dursleys, he got a Game Over message just the same. This one, at least, was somewhat beneficial.

***GAME OVER***

_"You failed to successfully complete the _Objective _to enroll in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. You failed to successfully complete the _Objective _to get to Diagon Alley. You failed to successfully complete the _Objective _to acquire Gringotts Key."_

*Restart From Last Checkpoint?*

**YES****/****NO**

"Objectives?" he read.

Next turn, the moment Harry had the letter in hand, he said, "Pause." The world turned gray and the same clear menu from his cupboard appeared on the door in front of him.

***Pause Menu***

_"Hints"_

_"Objectives"_

_"Level"_

_"Skills & Abilities"_

_"Challenges"_

_"Unlocked Features"_

_"Save/Load Game"_

"Objectives," he selected. The screen instantly changed.

***Objectives***

COMPLETE - _Acquire and maintain possession of Hogwarts Letter._

- _Read Hogwarts Letter_

- _Reply back with either confirmation to enroll, or decline to pursue other goals._

- _Locate and access Diagon Alley._

- _Acquire Gringotts Key in order to purchase school supplies._

- _Purchase school supplies _*(Read Letter for list)

- _Meet and befriend at least one magical person or creature._

_"Hint #23: All Objectives must be completed within (1 Day), unless they specifically state they are Long-Term Objectives."_

"Oh. Right. That," he grumbled. "OK, back to Mrs. Figg then."

He tried to open the door to leave, but it wouldn't budge, not even the doorknob would turn. He soon realized what that meant, seeing that the menu was still there on the door. "Oh. Start," he said and was finally allowed to leave. He ran to Mrs. Figg's house.

He knocked on the door once and waited. And waited. And waited. And did not knock on the door again. Finally, after a more than five minute wait, the door finally opened and a surprised looking Mrs. Figg was standing there. "Yes?" she spoke hesitantly, "What can I do for you Mr. Potter?"

Harry smiled genially at her. It would seem patience could be rewarded after all. "Mrs. Figg," he spoke as politely as he could. "I think we got a letter meant for you by mistake. The address is kinda funny and I'm not supposed to get mail. Here." He handed her his Hogwarts letter. Though he held it out, she did not take it.

"Come in, Mr. Potter," she hurried him inside. "I think there is something that needs to be explained to you. One moment please." She ushered him into her sitting room, where Harry found a clear screen there waiting.

***CONGRATULATIONS!***

***SECRET AREA**** FOUND!***

_"Mrs. Figg's House: Mrs. Figg is a non-magical member of the Order of the Phoenix. This Secret Area has (4) Hidden Items/Secrets. Discover them all for extra Rewards!"_

Given an actual challenge for once, rather than having to figure it all out on his own, Harry started to look forward to this a bit. Looking around the room he was in, he tried to see if anything stood out from his memories of the place. At first, the only thing that stood out was the fact that the room wasn't filled with cats, but then he noticed some thing, one thing, that was more unusual than what his half-forgotten memories could tell him. There was an urn over the mantle of her fireplace, which was currently cold and held no fire. It was glowing, the urn that is. It was glowing a flickering green color, like there was a lit flame inside of it, colored green. Going over to it, he smiled when he opened it up to find Floo powder there. It stopped glowing as an alert, something the Hints had warned him about, went off. Unlike the screens, the alerts only appeared as ghostly afterimages and more often than not just inside of his peripheral vision, but not in a way that would distract him.

*_You have found (1 of 4) Hidden Secrets!_

Now knowing what to look for, Harry quickly identified the only other glowing object in the room. It was a small box next to a well worn chair. Going to it, he opened the box and three things flashed up in his face. Startled, he jumped back. Getting a good look at them now, he was stumped for a moment. There was a giant Chocolate Frog card hanging in mid-air, gold sparks falling from it, an equally large box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, and what could have been a wingless snitch. Regardless of what it actually was, all he could say it was a gold glowing ball hovering there.

Seeker instincts taking control, briefly, Harry's hand reached out and snatched the wingless snitch out of the air. He got an alert and a screen at the same time in the next moment.

*_You have found (2 of 4) Hiddent Secrets!_

***Skill Point***

_"Hint #13: Skill Points are used to either augment or level up unlocked Skills and Abilities."_

"So that's what they look like," he said to himself, while recalling what other hints had said about the Skill Points. Such as they can be applied to spells as well in the Skills and Abilities menu. Whats more, once acquired, the Skill Points stay with him, even if he restarts or dies, until they are either used or reassigned. The hints were unfortunately rather vague about what they meant with the whole reassigning thing. He reached out and grabbed the Chocolate Frog card. It spun around suddenly, and then shrunk and was suddenly in his hand. It was Merlin!

"Blimey," he said as another screen came up. No alert accompanied it this time.

***Chocolate Frog Card***

_"Chocolate Frog Cards give you Experience toward Leveling up. They can also be used for Trading and certain Quests. Collected (1 of 100) Cards."_

"I'm not even sure I want to know," he mumbled as he reached for the box of beans. No screen came up, but the entire box vanished and he felt... better. Like his health or energy had improved or something.

Right at that moment, Mrs. Figg came back in. In her hand was a hand held mirror, similar to the one Sirius had once given him. It was glowing an incadescent white. Which explained how she kept in touch with Professor Dumbledore with her Floo banked. As she began speaking, he got an alert.

*_You have found (3 of 4) Hidden Secrets!"_

"If you don't mind waiting a bit, Mr. Potter, someone will be along shortly to explain that letter to you. Hang on to it for now, will you?" she said.

"Uh, sure, not a problem," he shrugged. "Would you mind if I looked around for a bit? Restless legs."

"No, not at all, just don't break anything please," she gave him permission.

Smiling innocently, Harry started his search for the final secret by going down the same hallway Mrs. Figgs had. Nothing jumped out at him, nor was glowing when he passed. He found her kitchen, but even looking in the refridgerator and all the cabinets revealed no glowing objects. He found the stairs to her second floor, but it was looking as glow-free as the downstairs now was. Until, just out of the corner of one eye, he caught a flash of movement. And whatever it was, it had been brighter than its surroundings.

Turning to follow it, whatever it was, he raced through the upstairs, always just catching sight of it just out of the corner of his eye whenever it moved, until he saw it go downstairs and saw it long enough to recognize one of Mrs. Figg's cats. Bounding down the stairs, he finally caught up with the glowing cat in the sitting room. Oddly, Mrs. Figg was nowhere to be found.

Walking up to the cat, he realized that description didn't really fit. The feline, which was quite clearly a pure blooded kneazle, was more similar to a lion or tiger cub rather than a fully grown tabby cat. Reaching out with one hand, he hesitated briefly when it looked ready to bolt, so instead he changed the motion of trying to pet it into just holding out his hand in greeting, nothing more, nothing less. The kneazle sniffed his fingertips. Apparently liking what it smelled, it licked him with its rough tongue and after annointing each of his fingers, butted his hand with the back of its head. Taking the invitation for what it was, Harry slowly began to pet and make nice with the feline magical creature.

Hm, speaking of magical creatures...

"Pause," he said while still petting the cat. He was only mildly surprised when it did not freeze and turn gray with everything else, but he quickly got over it. "Objectives."

***Objectives***

COMPLETE - _Acquire and maintain possession of Hogwarts Letter._

COMPLETE - _Read Hogwarts Letter_

- _Reply back with either confirmation to enroll, or decline to pursue other goals._

- _Locate and access Diagon Alley._

- _Acquire Gringotts Key in order to purchase school supplies._

- _Purchase school supplies _*(Read Letter for list)

COMPLETE - _Meet and befriend at least one magical person or creature._

"Huh," he grunted his acknowledgement of what had happened. "Start."

The moment he unpaused the world, the front door opened and Mrs. Figg walked in alongside... Hagrid? OK, that was both unexpected and unsurprising at the same time. The large half-giant had to squeeze through the doorway for a bit, but he managed to get in just fine.

He looked the same, Harry realized once he was fully inside, his head just an inch shy of scraping the ceiling. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair.

"An' here's Harry!" Hagrid said with a giant smile. "Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby. Yeh look a lot like yer dad, but yeh've got yer mom's eyes."

Harry smiled in return and tried not to roll his eyes. Different as things were now, he could still remember the actual first words he said to Hagrid upon their first meeting. "Who are you?" he asked, innocent smile perfectly in place.

The giant chuckled. "True, I haven't introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of

Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts." He held out an enormous hand and shook Harry's whole arm. "What about that tea then, eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together. "I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind."

"None of that, now Hagrid," Mrs. Figg chastised. "We have quite a bit to explain to the poor boy. You have no idea how many times I've wanted to tell him, but with no way to prove any of it... But now that he has his Hogwarts Letter!"

"Aye," Hagrid agreed.

"Sorry," Harry interrupted them, having learned from earlier mistakes that if he appeared to know too much, he risked a Game Over and he was starting to get tired of it already, "But I still don't know exactly who you are, or what this is about."

"Call me Hagrid," he said, "everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts—yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course."

"Er—no," said Harry.

Hagrid had the same shocked expression on his face the first time they'd had this conversation. Harry felt that was a good thing. What followed was a slightly altered, and far less angry (no shouting for starters) conversation where Hagrid and Mrs. Figg explained about the Wizarding World and how Harry was a wizard and pretty much everything. Harry avoided asking Mrs. Figg if she was a witch as he already knew she was a Squib and he likewise knew from experience that most Squibs found talk of their status to be a rather sensitive subject.

"Oh my, would you look at that," Mrs. Figg said as the conversation between the half-giant and the child came to a lull. "Midnight has never taken a shine to someone like that before."

"Midnight?" Harry asked, then looked down at his lap where the kneazle he'd been petting for the past few minutes had settled. He'd completely forgotten about it and had barely noticed continuing to pet it... him. "So that's your name, huh? Midnight. Mine is Harry Potter. Nice to meet you."

"Meow!" the kneazle returned the greeting, and suddenly the glow around him seemed to spread and move into Harry's body. The world paused yet again as a new screen and Alert came up simultaneously.

*_Familiar: Midnight (Kneazle) Acquired!_

*_You have found (4 of 4) Hidden Secrets!_

***CONGRATULATIONS!***

_"You have found all (4) Hidden Items/Secrets of this Area!"_

+50 EXP, +10HP, +5MP

BONUS: +5 STAMINA, +1 CHARISMA, +3 STEALTH, +1 INTELLIGENCE

Before he could say or do anything, let alone before he was prepared for it, another screen came up over top of the last one.

***FAMILIAR ****ACQUIRED!***

_"Familiars are non-human creatures that can enhance your stats and/or give you additional Skills or Abilities. You may have more than one Familiar, but can only Equip(!) 1 at a time, though there are some Familiars and Skills that allow you to Equip additional Familiars."_

(!)_"Hint #99: To change your Equipment or what you have Equipped, you first need a Trunk or Home."_

"OK," he said while looking down at Midnight, his new Familiar. "I only ever had experience with Hedwig, though it is good to know I don't have to pick and choose between the two of you. So... uh, what exactly do you do? I mean, what its talking about there about enhancing stats and abilities and stuff."

In answer, sort of, Midnight turned to the open screen and, "Meow!" at it. To Harry's surprise, it changed instantly to an abreviated stats sheet.

**Familiar**: Kneazle

Name - Midnight

HP - 20

MP - 25

Skill - Language (English), Truthscent (_Can detect truth and lies via smell_), Camoflauge (_Stealth +10 to Familiar, Stealth +5 to Character_), Battle Companion (_Can join Character in battle and defeat enemies._)

Abilities - +5 Intelligence, +5 Stealth (_Camoflauge_), 10% Bonus to Attack Rating, 5% Bonus to Critical Rating.

Harry blinked at the stats and did a double-take between the cat in his lap and the screen. "I am definitely keeping you Midnight. You are awesome!"

"Meow!" Midnight agreed wholeheartedly. Then the world started up again.

"Well, I can see that he's going to be impossible to live with now," Mrs. Figg said with a suffering sigh. "Why don't you take him, Mr. Potter? They certainly allow pets at Hogwarts, and Midnight will be far happier with you than here."

Feigning surprise, Harry exclaimed, "Are you sure, Mrs. Figg? Isn't Midnight your cat?"

"Not at all," she shook her head. "Who do you think it was that injured me in the first place?" she gestured to her leg, still in a cast. "He only stayed around because he fathered so many of my cats and probably just had nowhere better to be after they were able to fend for themselves. He is all yours, Mr. Potter."

"Well, all right then," Harry grinned and resumed petting his new Familiar. Now he just had to hope that Hedwig (he was _really_ looking forward to seeing her again!) wouldn't be too jealous.

"Aye, we'd best be going, Harry," Hagrid said suddenly. "Don't want the stores to close on us."

"All right, Hagrid," Harry nodded happily. "Midnight?" The kneazle jumped down and dutifully followed Harry as he headed for the door and then out it.

They walked outside and after discretely looking around to make sure the coast was clear, Hagrid raised his pink umbrella and within moments there was a loud bang and before them was a bright purple triple-decker bus. From the steps at the back of it, the young man Harry knew to be Stan Shunpike stepped down and waved at them in his uniform.

"Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard," he recited, same as the first time Harry had heard it. "Just stick out your wand hand, step on board, and we can take you anywhere you want to go. My name is Stan Shunpike, and I will be your conductor this afternoon. Oh, 'ello there 'Agrid! New student then? Diagon Alley it is!"

"Thanks Stan!" Hagrid stepped into the Knight Bus, Harry following behind. "Ernie! Good to see you!" The moment the half giant sat down, Harry could finally make out the screen that had appeared between the benches and the driver and read it.

***Discovered Knight Bus!***

_"The Knight Bus is one of the primary methods of getting around the Wizarding World, and means of accessing other Areas. To access and use the Knight Bus, you must first have a wand and be at least Level 10 or higher."_

+5 EXP

As was standard for the Knight Bus when running in the day, the beds had been replaced by park benches and other random bits of furniture, which unfortunately still moved around with every bump of the bus. It took them a couple of hours, but eventually they managed to make it to the Leaky Cauldron without almost dying, or Hagrid losing his breakfast.

And of course, Hagrid really couldn't help taking him _through_ the magical pub to show him off, rather than around the back straight to the alley. It was largely the same as when Hagrid had taken him on his birthday originally, even Professor Quirrell was there!

When they finally got through, Hagrid took him out back and then opened the path to Diagon Alley. Instantly, there was a chime echoing throughout the alley as a new screen appeared in the opened archway.

***DIAGON ALLEY***

***New Location Discovered!***

_"Diagon Alley: Diagon Alley is an Open Area where commerce and Trading by Wizard Britain is largely done. This Area has (100) Hidden Items/Secrets. Discover them all for extra Rewards!"_

Harry's eyebrows raised at the new information. "Ohhh-kaaayyy," he said with a deep breath. With a shrug, he stepped forward into the Alley and said to himself, "Let's get started."

END Level Two.


	3. Level Three: The Alley

Level Three: "_The Alley_"

*_Level Up Available!_

*_Skill Points Available!_

*_New Abilities Unlocked! Upgrade Available!_

Harry shook his head, trying to clear his vision of the sudden Alerts he was getting. Unfortunately that wasn't going to do it. He stopped just inside the mouth to the Alley and said under his breath, "Pause!"

The world froze in shades of gray and the screen, ironically, appeared behind him, in the archway to Diagon Alley. "Level," he selected. The screen that came up was the same as the last time he'd looked at it in the cupboard, but sadly getting his letter only gave him 5 EXP, so he hadn't been making much headway in leveling up until this time around. The biggest difference was that the EXP was now over a hundred and there was a question below the stats now. Also, the Alerts were still there in the corner of his eye

(Harry James Potter) Level:

Level 1 (165)

Health (HP): 130 (+20 Familiar)

Magic (MP): 130 (+25 Familiar)

Stamina: 105

Charisma: 1

Stealth: 20 (+5 Familiar)

Intelligence: 6 (+5 Familiar)

Abilities: Natural Flying Talent, Parselmouth

Skills: Familiar, Hide Skill: 1, Sneak Skill: 1, "Harry Hunting Bonus" (+10 Stealth)

Spells: 0

*_Would you like to Level Up now?_*

**YES/NO**

"Yes," he said and was relieved to see one of the Alerts vanish as the numbers shuffled about.

(Harry James Potter) Level:

Level 2 (165)

Health (HP): 140 (+20 Familiar)

Magic (MP): 140 (+25 Familiar)

Stamina: 115

Charisma: 1

Stealth: 22 (+5 Familiar)

Intelligence: 7 (+5 Familiar)

Abilities: Natural Flying Talent, Parselmouth

Skills: Familiar, Hide Skill: 1, Sneak Skill: 1, "Harry Hunting Bonus"

Spells: 0

"Hm," he muttered. "Not a lot, but then again I'm only level 2. Ugh, still got those alerts about skills and abilities. Fine! Menu!" The screen went back to the main Pause menu. "Skills and abilities."

***NEW Abilities Are Available!***

_"You have (3) Skill Points Available!"_

PLEASE SELECT ONE OF THE FOLLOWING:

***Skills***

***Abilities***

***[LOCKED]***

"I am so not interested in boosting what you say I've got already, so lets get the rid of two birds with one stone. Abilities!" he selected.

***CURRENT ABILITIES***

Natural Flying Talent

Parselmouth

-OR-

_"Purchase New Abilities"_

"Purchase new abilities," he selected and looked to see what he had. A very long list appeared. As he read through it, having to say "More" every time he got to the end of the current screen to see the rest of it, he saw that he had to 'purchase' abilities with Skill Points, and some Abilities either had prerequisites such as a minimum character level, a certain level of a certain type of Skill, or a specific Avatar/Character. Also, some of the really cool Abilities, even among the ones that he technically _could_ get, cost more Skill Points than he currently had to spend! Finally he decided to just go ahead and spend his three points on getting three new Abilities and leveling them up later. Except...

Something made him pause (so to speak), and go back to the menu again, but this time select Skills.

***CURRENT SKILLS***

Familiar

Hide (1)

Sneak (1)

"Familiar," he selected. He was annoyed that he didn't have the option to purchase new skills, but considering it was _Skills_, it made a sort of sense that he had to go out in the world and either work at it or learn it from somebody. The screen, rather than giving him a new menu, just asked him; "Would you like to upgrade this Skill? **YES/NO**"

It took him a bit to recall what it was exactly that had given him pause in spending his points on the three new abilities he'd chosen just as a means of getting rid of the Alerts. Then he looked down and saw Midnight curling around his legs. He remembered in an instant, the Hints had mentioned something about Skills having levels and that at the third level of that Skill, you got to choose a new Ability related to that Skill! Also, the bit about Familiars itself had said that there were some Familiars _and Skills_ that allowed one to equip more than one Familiar at a time!

Grinning widely, he selected, "Yes! Familiar, yes, Familiar, yes!" A single chime accompanied each point awarded to the Skill, but after the third chime a new screen came up.

***Select from the following Abilities:***

Acquainted - _"Boosts the stats your Equiped Familiar grants, and your stats boost it in turn."_

Common - _"Allows you to switch out Familiars without having to visit your Trunk."_

Do Little - _"Allows you to Equip 1 additional Familiar. (*Part of the Creature Path)"_

Harry smiled, that was exactly what he was hoping for. "Do Little," he selected. To his pleasant surprise, the screens and Alerts disappeared after that and he felt, honestly he felt _good_! Oh, the world had started up again. He raced to catch up with Hagrid, Midnight on his heels.

Same as before, their first stop was Gringotts. Same as before, Hagrid said the exact same things, even the bit about wanting a dragon. Which reminded him, he needed to do something about _Norberta_ so Hagrid didn't get in trouble and they wouldn't have to rely on Ron's connection to his brother Charlie. _Not_ same as before, the sign next to the guards was glowing, and Harry was too busy reading the alert about finding one of the Secrets of Diagon Alley to really re-read the little rhyme about not stealing from the goblins. Apparently, for a reason he got experience points for that, according to the Alert.

Same as before, they went to the first available teller. Same as before, Hagrid fumbled for his key. Same as before he handed over a letter about Vault 713 and acted like it was some spy mission secret. Which, actually, when Harry thought about it, it kind of was. Same as before they took the carts down and same as before, Hagrid got sick. The differences finally started when Griphook, traitorous back-stabbing filthy goblin that he was, handed Harry a glowing bag and then stepped back to allow him access to his vault.

***Money Bag Acquired!***

_"You got the _Money Bag_! The Money Bag is a _Key Item_ and remains available to you at all times, even when you do not have it physically equiped. With the Money Bag, you can hold up to 99 Galleons, 16 Sickles, and 28 Knuts. Additional funds put into the Money Bag are automatically transferred to the Vault assigned to the Money Bag. Also, from the Trunk or Home, you can arrange transferrs to fill the Money Bag to capacity from the Vault."_

***Vault Acquired!***

_"You now have access to your Trust Vault(687)! You can own more than one Vault, but the Money Bag can only be assigned to one Vault at a time. Vaults can store excess currency as well as Items. Currency can be withdrawn by transferring it to the Money Bag via the Trunk or Home, but Items may only be withdrawn by visiting Gringotts and the Vault directly, though to place Items in the Vault may be done via the Trunk or Home. You may also transfer funds and Items between Vaults you own."_

Harry smiled as the bag flashed in his hands and was suddenly filled to capacity and strapped to his hip, though it felt like it wasn't even there. Looking around inside, he saw no glowing items, just the same stacks of gold and silver. Turning to the goblin, which he was trying to resolve with his memories of him betraying them when they'd gone after the Cup in Bellatrix's Vault, he asked Griphook, "Griphook, do I have any other vaults under my name? Or maybe my parents had a vault that I could look through?"

"Hn," the goblin grunted and gave a short, sharp nod. "That would be for the Potter Account Manager to discuss with you. I am aware that there is one Vault assigned to Harry Potter in the bank. It was set up by your parents, and it has been receiving donations since the day of November 2, 1981. That one, in fact," he pointed one long spindly finger at the Vault right next to his Trust Vault. "Vault 686. Would you happen to have the Key for that one?"

Harry frowned and rounded on Hagrid, eyebrow raised expectantly. With a shrug, he said helplessly, "Dumbledore only gave me the one key, Harry. I didn't know about this, honest!"

Glowering at the pair of them, Harry crossed his arms and considered his options. No key, goblins wouldn't let him near the Vault, even if his name was on the owner slip, even if his name was on the bloody vault and everything inside it to boot! That was when he noticed something had changed while he'd been brooding briefly. Griphook had frozen and he had an icon floating over his head. That's the only way to describe it, he mused, because it was not words and while it was a picture it was very simple and obviously representative of something else. If he had to describe it, he would say that it looked like a green exclamation point in front of a thick book. As he stepped closer to it, and incidently Griphook, when he got within three feet of the goblin, the exclamation point flashed to yellow and a screen appeared in front of him.

***QUEST***

THE KEY TO POTTER'S VAULT

_"The Key to Harry Potter's Personal Vault is missing! Find out if it was stolen or misplaced! Find the Key and gain access to the Vault and all that lies within! If stolen, punish the guilty party! If lost return to whoever lost it for additional rewards!"_

*Would You Like To Accept This Quest?*

**YES/NO**

So the icon indicated a quest holder. Harry really wished those hints had graphics associated with them. Green meant they had quests available, yellow meant the quest was being worked on, and red meant the quest had been completed, he further recalled the hints regarding Quests. Plus, extra vault, and who knows how much extra money and items were in it, always a good thing, he figured.

"Yes," he selected.

Griphook instantly unfroze and began speaking. "All I can confirm, human, is that yes, this was your Vault. The last humans down in this section was your parents and in order to set up this as your Personal Vault, your blood was required, so they brought you when setting it up. I was there to supervise the procedure. Although..."

"Although?" Harry questioned, trying to sound curious rather than acusing.

Griphook rubbed his spindly fingers together in a familiar gesture and continued, "I may have spoken prematurely as you being the only human down in this section since your parents. I can't quite remember."

*_Charisma Check! Goblin is asking for a bribe! Too low, you fail and get nothing or wrong information! Too high, bribes will only get more expensive, even when your Charisma is high enough to lower them!_

Harry was suddenly extremely glad of the Alerts, annoying as they were. He also wished he had more than one point in Charisma! He figured he had three options. Go low and try to work his way up, go high and work his way up, or try to intimidate the little shite. Or...

"Hagrid," Harry turned to the friendly giant. "Would you mind waiting by the cart? This is just boring account stuff, shouldn't take long at all."

"Oh, er, all right Harry, I'll be by the cart then," Hagrid shrugged and shuffled off, still looking a bit sick.

The moment his back was turned, Harry faced the goblin and grabbed him by the throat and shoved him all the way back to the closed door of Vault 687. "Now listen here, _hcktchpuu_!" he cursed the goblin in horribly accented Gobbledegook he was sure. Though they hadn't had to use them, Griphook had given the Trio some prepatory training for a number of backup plans, including them being cornered by hostile goblins if they got separated. Knowing what he did about Griphook's "plans" for that little heist, as well as the goblin's look of rage, he was certain that it was some sort of heinous insult rather than a safeword to identify them as 'friends of goblins'.

Harry punched him in the goblin equivalent of the sternum, once. "_Listen_!" he hissed in Parseltongue. That drew the last of the fight from him.

"I'm not about to steal from a goblin, but we both know I don't have that key on me nor anyway to get that key anytime soon," he said, looking right into the banker's eyes. "So you are going to tell me two things, and then we both go on our merry way, all right with you, _hcktchpuu_?" The word sounded like he was trying to sneeze out phlegm from the bottom of his throat.

Seeing no further signs of fight from him, he continued. "Second thing, you are going to tell me the truth about who all has been to access Vault 686."

The goblin's brow raised, apparently intrigued. "Second thing?" he repeated with a wheezing rasp.

"First thing," Harry smiled, showing all his teeth, "is what you want for that information. _Exactly_ what you want, nothing more, nothing less. I'm human, I'm not smart enough to read your signs well enough to avoid basic misunderstandings. I figured I'd just save us both some time," Harry shoved himself off the goblin and took a healthy few steps back, "and cut to the chase. After all, time is money. How much for the information? The true information?"

Rubbing his throat, Griphook eyeballed Harry with a calculating stare. Grunting again, he shrugged like he was choked by 10 year olds every day and it was just part of the job—the boring part. "13 galleons, 5 sickles, and a knut," Griphook grinned savagely.

"Oddly specific," Harry shrugged and reached into the Money Bag. The screen came up, asking if he wanted to pay the bribe, he just said, "Yes" and pulled out the exact amount Griphook had asked for. Even the knut, which was interesting if only because Harry hadn't put any knuts into his Money Bag.

"Hn," came the same grunt again. "In the past eleven years, only five people have ever visited Vault 686; James Potter, Lily Potter, Harry Potter, Albus Dumbledore, and," Griphook's eyes glinted with amusement, "me."

"Do you have the key?" Harry asked, holding another five sickles. At Griphook's intrigued look, he said, "The thirteen galleons I figure are actually the standard bribe for a Gringotts goblin, the knut was to trip me up and would have allowed you to lie. I figure the sickles are for your lunch. Double the amount, you get your lunch free two days in a row, or just seconds for today."

"You learn fast, for a human," Griphook admitted. "No, I have never possessed the Key for Vault 686. And if it were stolen, that would be a simple matter to deduce."

"How?" Harry asked, handing over the five sickles, one at a time.

"A spell we have our employees cast for us on all the Keys. If any but the approved individuals touch it, the thief's hands are colored a vivid red. To identify the specific Key, the Vault number appears on the back of the red hand in a color only goblins can see unaided."

"What's the spell?" he inquired, and to his surprise, Griphook held out a small parchment pamphlet. Inside the folds were the details of wand movements and incantation of the "Thieves Hand" spell. Learning spells on the fly had been something he'd had to do when leading the DA and moreso when on the run, so just glancing at this was enough for him to learn it.

*_Learned "__Thieves Hand__" Spell! You must have a wand to cast spells!_

"Thank you for your time," Harry grinned and handed the pamphlet back to the waiting goblin.

"Time well spent," Griphook grinned back at him and they made their way back to the cart.

*(15) EXP Gained! +2 Charisma! +1 Intelligence!

There, Harry thought to himself, that's better. More than one way to be charismatic.

Vault 713 was the same, and then he and Hagird were back in the alley. After Gringotts, the afternoon looked to be filled much the same as the original time, and it was as far as Hagrid was concerned. For Harry though, rather than the Nimbus 2000 in the Racing Broom store, he was distracted more by all the icons he found floating over each of the shops and even more distracting over some of the people just standing there in the street! It was as he past an old metal lamp post missing one of its arms, the whole thing glowing like sunlight through trees that he recalled there were nearly a hundred Hidden Secrets throughout the area. Apparently there was a lot more for him to do on Diagon Alley than just get his school supplies.

Most of that though was going to have to wait, he decided. No matter what this Game did to the world, it couldn't change the date, he had a whole month and a half to explore this place before September 1st. He fully expected to be somewhere around Level 10 by the time he got on the Hogwarts Express. Thankfully, some of it he still got to explore today with Hagrid.

Madam Malkin's Robes was the same, except for the gold coin icon with a G etched on it hovering over the entrance, and the same icon staying locked over her head wherever she moved. Hagrid, same as before, offered to go and get some "refreshment" while Harry was busy with getting fitted. The moment Hagrid left, Madam Malkin froze in the middle of the room. With a sigh, Harry approached her, and as with Griphook, when he got to within three feet of her, she suddenly came to life, but more than that a screen opened right next to her with a list and words on it.

"Welcome to the Clothing and Armor Shop! How may I assist you today?" she asked as though reading from a script. Harry ignored her and started to read through the list. There were several submenus, each with quite a list of options on them.

Finally, having made his choices after reading through everything available, and affordable, he made his selections. "Hogwarts Uniform#1, Hogwarts Uniform#2, Chameleon Suit, Silent Shoes, Utility Belt#1, and oh lets splurge a bit, the Omnilens. Complete. Yes, yes, oh hells yes!" he selected each prompt for completing his order, that he did want to pay the amount, that he wanted to equip everything he'd just purchased, and he absolutely wanted to sell his Dursley-wear. He suddenly found himself dressed in a plain white jumpsuit, black velvet boots, and a tool belt minus the tools, with a shopping bag in one hand containing his two uniforms, the standard and the winter versions. On his face, instead of his broken and worn round glasses, he now sported a stylish set of reflective Ray Bann's. And his vision was perfect, better than perfect even!

"Thank you, please come again dearie!" the stationary Madam Malkin waved and froze once more.

Harry smiled and waved back to the 'statue' before turning and exiting the Clothing Shop. Just as he was about to actually, he stopped and noticed a small area just off to the side inside the shop. Turning, he stepped closer to it and same as with people with icons over their head, when he got within range it activated.

*_You have found (3 of 100) Hidden Secrets!_

***CREATION STATION***

CLOTHING STATION

_"Clothing Stations are able to be used to fashion clothing items from the proper materials, and once the Title "Tailor" is acquired, you can even sell the clothing items you make with them. Would you like to use the Clothing Station now?"_

**YES/NO**

"Whoa," Harry blinked. This was looking... bigger than he'd first thought. The fact that the window was called Creation Station, and it then further specified that it was a clothing station told him that there were probably _other_ Creation Stations out there, ones that would allow him to craft... who knows what! "No," he selected, seeing as he had no items on him save those he'd just purchased.

Speaking of which, he paused (so to speak) yet again to admire them as he stepped away from the Creation Station. First there was the white jumpsuit he was now wearing, called the Chameleon Suit. Harry smiled and snapped his fingers, keeping his mind focused on a clear image. Just like that, with no effect beyond that it _changed_, the white suit had become a well fitting pair of blue jeans, a crimson t-shirt, and a dark blue cotton jacket. Also, it provided a +1 to his Stealth and Charisma both. The shoes provided a +10 to his Stealth, and a 10% bonus to his Defense Rating, but mostly they just didn't make noise when he walked. What he was _really_ enjoying though were the Omnilens. They were glasses, obviously, but as the name implies, they not only looked good, they let him see just about everything. Had cost 50 galleons, which was over two hundred pounds in the exchange, and three times more than _both_ his uniforms had cost _together_, but it was well worth it. Especially as there were promised upgrades that were locked out only because he needed to be a certain level to even use them. Right now, besides perfect vision, he had telescopic, microscopic (to about the same level as a High School microscope), and something called Scouter Mode. He was really looking forward to getting the X-Ray upgrade, but that required Level 10 at a minimum. Hey, he may have been a tragic hero stuck in a video game, but he was still, or would soon be a teenage boy!

The last thing was the Utility Belt, which actually was just the cheapest one, not the only one available. Given that the more expensive options were only slightly better and the cheapest one he could get at Level 5 had better than Level 1 or Level 2 offered, he decided to go with the cheapest and upgrade when he reached Level 5. Right now, what it did was allow him to hold and store an additional 10 Items and give him a +1 Stamina.

The moment he left the Shop, Hagrid was there waiting for him.

"All right there, Harry?" he called upon seeing him.

"So where to next Hagrid?" Harry asked, smiling.

"Ah, first, let me show what I go yeh while you were busy in there," Hagrid then pulled three things that really should not have fit in there in the first place from his coat. "I got yer Trunk, so we wouldn't have to hassle with all the different bags and things. Came cheap when I mentioned your name. I also got yeh this. Oh, and I know that Mrs. Figg let you take her cat an all, but I figured I would get you yer pet. Think of it as an early birthday present!"

Harry stared, wide-eyed and smiling brightly. There, in a gilded cage, was his first friend ever. Silently, tears pooling at his eyes, he accepted the snowy white owl from the man. "Hedwig," he whispered, filled with relief, joy and an overwhelming sense of peace. He hadn't really had time to mourn the loss of his owl, and to have her back... it filled a void in his heart he had not even recognized.

*_Familiar: Hedwig (Owl) Acquired!_

**Familiar:** Owl

Name - Hedwig

HP - 25

MP - 25

Skills - Language (English), Post Owl (_Delivers messages to any Level 6 Relationship Character_), Battle Companion, Link (_Able to equip additional Familiar that has matching Link Skill_), Flight.

Abilities - +5 Intelligence, +5 Charisma, +5% Attack Rating, +5% Defense Rating

"Link, huh?" he mumbled as the cage dissovled around Hagrid's fingers and his owl hopped over to his shoulder. "I'll have to keep an eye out for that. Oh, Hedwig, meet Midnight. Midnight, meet Hedwig."

"Meow!" Midnight replied.

"Screck!" Hedwig bobbed her head once to the kneazle.

After a moment of staring at each other, Hedwig bobbed her head again and then closed her eyes. Midnight's tail waved two and fro once and then he turned his head towards more interesting sights around the alley. With a sigh, Harry just moved past it and was careful about not bumping Hedwig from her new perch as he straightened up.

Flourish and Blott's was a bit different as well. Partly from Harry having already spent most of the currency in his Money Bag, but mostly from the fact he and Hagrid didn't have to go around all the shelves like the first time, instead just going up to the register at front, where there was a floating icon. Thankfully, instead of having to buy each book, he just got something called, "Hogwarts Year 1 Book Set" and next thing he knew, he had all the text books for his classes there in his trunk!

No Creation Station hidden away in here, but one thing that really stood out was the moment he walked in, Hagrid stepped off to the side and somebody he'd never seen before walked right up to him and handed him a large leather-bound tome. It was three feet tall and two wide on the front cover, and over 7 inches thick! The moment after it was in his hands, and he wasn't struggling under the weight of the thing, a screen popped up.

***Grimoire Acquired***

Magus Compendium

_"A Grimoire is a Key Item, a useful tool that allows you to accept and pursue more than one quest at a time. It also is a way of keeping track of your personal Inventory, Current Assignments, Equipment, and Spell, Skill and Abilities library. Not to mention your homework."_

Magus Compendium - Free Grimoire handed out at Flourish & Blott's to all Hogwarts Students. No Bonus.

"Huh," Harry grunted, and then said it again when the thing seemed to fold up in on itself, several times, until it was the size and weight of a slim paperback book. Yet when he opened it, the number of pages seemed to be just this side of infinite, and no matter where he opened it to, the same screen popped up directly over it, like some kind of hand held computer tablet. He also caught a couple hints from the Quest section in it about where he could go next to find out who had the Key to Vault 686. Very useful tool indeed.

Prince's Apothecary and Potion Supplies was their next stop, and aside from the same floating icon over the proprietor, (from whom he only bought his cauldron and no ingredients), there was another Creation Station. This one, as you would expect, was a Potion Station.

***CREATION STATION***

POTION STATION

_"Potion Stations can be found in any available Potions Lab, or place where potion ingredients can be purchased, and can be used to concoct any potion you have the ingredients for. Once the Title "Alchemist" or "Potion Master" is acquired, you can sell the potions you make. Would you like to use the Potion Station at this time?"_

**YES/NO**

He left it alone, obviously, though he was curious now as to what kind of potions these things would allow him to create that Snape either didn't or wouldn't teach them about. He might look into it once he got to school.

Finally, they went to Ollivander's, and despite expecting it and even looking for him, Harry was still startled when the creepy wand maker appeared behind him and couldn't help jumping when he spoke.

"Mister Potter, I've been expecting you," Ollivander said, stepping around from behind the boy and the giant. Harry decided that while he had a high Stealth rating for his level, Ollivander's must be through the roof.

All of a sudden, as he gazed at the man as he went through the same spiel about Hagrid's wand, his parents wands and wand lore in general, the Scouter Mode on his Omnilens kicked in. Without freezing anything, to Harry's eyes alone, Ollivander was surrounded by a highlight aura and a line connected that aura to a screen that appeared next to him and stayed with him wherever he moved.

**SCOUTER MODE:**

Name: Garrick Ollivander

Age: 69 Years, 10 Months

Level: ?

HP - 1921

MP - 2911

Stamina - 510

Charimsa - 200

Stealth - 987

Intelligence - 777

Abilities, Skills, Spells - "Unknown" (Feature Locked)

"That's enough," Ollivander was saying, and Harry pulled his attention away from the Scouter Mode and back to the man as the tape measure finally retracted from him. "Here we are Mister Potter. Go on, give it a wave!" he encouraged.

With a sigh, Harry shrugged and waved the wand he'd been handed, only to have it snatched away at the last moment. "No, not that one," Ollivander said, handing over another without saying what it was.

Harry already knew which wand was his, so he mostly just went through the motions, idly enjoying the show Ollivander was putting on for him as the wrong wands sometimes went off with rather... explosive results before they could be snatched away. Finally, he started to say what Harry was waiting for.

"I wonder," Ollivander muttered, "An unusual combination. Yes, Holly and Phoenix tail feather."

Smiling for the first time since entering the shop, Harry grabbed his wand with his right hand and felt the familiar connection instantly. A warm glow surrounded him and the wand and the sound of a Phoenix song could be heard in the air. Moments later, amidst Hagrid's and Ollivander's cheers, a screen popped up.

***Wand Acquired!***

Holly Phoenix Wand

_"You are now able to cast spells. Your Wand is a Key Item and will remain with you at all times unless unequiped or intentionally taken during battle."_

"Wicked," Harry grinned and put his wand away in the holster for it on his Utility Belt.

"Hm, intriguing, most intriguing," Ollivander began to mutter. Before Harry could ask him about it though, despite already knowing the story, a new screen popped up and the world grayed out.

***CONGRATULATIONS!***

_"You have completed all Objectives for this day!"_

+100 EXP, +5 HP, +5 MP, +1 Intelligence

Would You Like To Save?

**YES/NO**

Somewhat surprised, and thrown by it coming out of nowhere like this, Harry decided to go with it. And frankly, he didn't want to have to go through this more than once. Women were the ones that loved shopping, not him. "Yes!" he selected.

*_Game Saving..._

*_Level Up Available!_

Harry sighed and said as he turned around, "Pause. Level."

(Harry James Potter) Level:

Level 2 (295)

Health (HP): 170 (+20 Familiar) (+25 Familiar)

Magic (MP): 170 (+25 Familiar) (+25 Familiar)

Stamina: 116 (+1 Utility Belt)

Charisma: 9 (+1 Chameleon Suit) (+5 Familiar)

Stealth: 33 (+5 Familiar) (+1 Chameleon Suit) (+10 Silent Shoes)

Intelligence: 14 (+5 Familiar) (+5 Familiar)

Abilities: Natural Flying Talent, Parselmouth, Do Little, Omnilens

Skills: Familiar: 3, Hide Skill: 1, Sneak Skill: 1, "Harry Hunting Bonus"

Spells: 2

*_Would you like to Level Up now?_*

**YES/NO**

"Yes," he selected and waited for the numbers to reshuffle.

(Harry James Potter) Level:

Level 3 (295)

Health (HP): 180 (+20 Familiar) (+25 Familiar)

Magic (MP): 180 (+25 Familiar) (+25 Familiar)

Stamina: 126 (+1 Utility Belt)

Charisma: 10 (+1 Chameleon Suit) (+5 Familiar)

Stealth: 35 (+5 Familiar) (+1 Chameleon Suit) (+10 Silent Shoes)

Intelligence: 15 (+5 Familiar) (+5 Familiar)

Abilities: Natural Flying Talent, Parselmouth, Do Little, Omnilens

Skills: Familiar: 3, Hide Skill: 1, Sneak Skill: 1, "Harry Hunting Bonus"

Spells: 2

"No Skill points this time, huh? Guess that only happens on even levels or something," he muttered as he Started the world again.

"Most intriguing..." Ollivander was still saying.

With a silent sigh, Harry put on his curious face and asked, "Sorry sir, but what is intriguing?" He then sat there and listened as the wand maker basically accused him of being Voldemort's heir without accusing him of anything. The moment he stopped talking, a Quest icon appeared over Ollivander's head. Seeing Hagrid still pulling himself together, Harry stepped forward, and then through no control of his own, found himself asking, "Sorry again, Mister Ollivander, but is there anything that you need help with today?"

"Well, there is one thing," Ollivander tapped his chin thoughtfully. "It is but a small thing really. You see that wand has sat on my shelf for a great number of years, never chose anyone before you, and its brother was chosen over fifty years ago. I would like to see it in action. I can teach you a basic spell to try it out with. What do you say?"

***QUEST***

OLLIVANDER'S QUALITY TEST

_"Ollivander wants to see your wand in action! Rewards: +15 EXP, Spell: Micandeo"_

*Would You Like To Accept This Quest?*

**YES/NO**

Recognizing the basic spell for shooting off colored sparks, and knowing it's better to know lots of low level spells than knowing only one or none high level spells you can't even cast properly, he accepted it immediately. "Yes."

"Right, so go ahead and pull your wand and it is just a simple slash, like so," Ollivander demonstrated. "And all you do is say _Micandeo_. That's 'mee-can-dee-oh'."

Harry nodded, drew his wand and cast the spell for shooting off sparks. Only for it to fizzle and do nothing. "What?" he exclaimed, surprised at his failure of such a simple spell. He raised his wand again and precisely moved while incanting, "Micandeo!" A single spark shot out, but then it fizzled. Growling with frustration now, he double-checked everything he was doing, even his posture as he cast. Then he stopped.

"Pause!" he growled. "Hints! Number seventy-seven!"

*_Hint #7: To use spells properly, after learning them, you must equip them. You can learn as many spells as there are in the Game, but you can only cast a limited number at any time. Your Spell Limit is twice the number of your Level. Also, each spell costs MP, some spells constantly drain MP while others have a one time cost._

"Stupid game, stupid rules, stupid compendium!" Harry pulled the book from his belt and used the options to 'Equip' the spell to his wand. He went ahead and equipped the Thieves Hand spell just so he wouldn't have to do it later. "Start! MICANDEO!"

A solid stream of red and gold sparks poured forth from his wand and continued until his MP ran dry. The spark spell only had a one-time-cost of 1 MP, but by continuing the spell so it was continuous, it became 1 MP per second, so it lasted for quite a while.

"Well, a rough start, but that last display definitely made up for it," Ollivander nodded, satisfied. "Here, a little bonus for you."

*+15 EXP gained!

*Ingredient acquired!

Ollivander handed him a stick. It might have been a wand, but Harry felt no magic from it at all, despite it being the right shape and size for one, but there was no grip or signs of workmanship done on it. It was the same wood as his wand, he recognized that much at least. Harry figured he'd find something to do with it later.

"Thank you sir," Harry said to him, noting as he did the exclamation point over his head had gone from yellow to red.

*_Level Up Available!_

Harry blinked and said with surprise, "That was quick. Maybe it won't take me as long as I thought to leve up with this thing as I'd thought. Pause. Level."

(Harry James Potter) Level:

Level 3 (310)

Health (HP): 180 (+20 Familiar) (+25 Familiar)

Magic (MP): 180 (+25 Familiar) (+25 Familiar)

Stamina: 126 (+1 Utility Belt)

Charisma: 10 (+1 Chameleon Suit) (+5 Familiar)

Stealth: 35 (+5 Familiar) (+1 Chameleon Suit) (+10 Silent Shoes)

Intelligence: 15 (+5 Familiar) (+5 Familiar)

Abilities: Natural Flying Talent, Parselmouth, Do Little, Omnilens

Skills: Familiar: 3, Hide Skill: 1, Sneak Skill: 1, "Harry Hunting Bonus"

Spells: 2

*_Would you like to Level Up now?_*

**YES/NO**

"Yes," he selected and waited for the numbers to reshuffle.

(Harry James Potter) Level:

Level 4 (310)

Health (HP): 190 (+20 Familiar) (+25 Familiar)

Magic (MP): 190 (+25 Familiar) (+25 Familiar)

Stamina: 136 (+1 Utility Belt)

Charisma: 10 (+1 Chameleon Suit) (+5 Familiar)

Stealth: 37 (+5 Familiar) (+1 Chameleon Suit) (+10 Silent Shoes)

Intelligence: 16 (+5 Familiar) (+5 Familiar)

Abilities: Natural Flying Talent, Parselmouth, Do Little, Omnilens

Skills: Familiar: 3, Hide Skill: 1, Sneak Skill: 1, "Harry Hunting Bonus"

Spells: 2

"Guess the Skill points only get found and not applied every level then, huh? That... sucks," he muttered as he Started the world again.

He and Hagrid left Ollivanders and Hagrid picked up everything that Harry didn't have equipped. Turning to the boy, he said, "Well, I'm gonna head to the pub to get a cuppa. When you're ready Harry, I'll take you back to yer home. I'm sure yer relatives must be worried sick by now. Either way, we need to get you home before closing. Have fun! Er, try not to get into too much trouble?"

With that said, the friendly giant walked off, presumably to the Leaky Cauldron as he'd said he would. Surprised by this, Harry just stood there outside of Ollivander's with his Familiars until Hagrid was out of sight. Looking around, he tried to figure out what exactly was going on. "Pause!" he said, deciding it would be better not to be blindsided while he was thinking things through.

This hadn't happened before. In fact, as far as Harry could remember, it had _never_ happened before! He'd never been left on his own, except for that time he'd run away and spent the last bit of summer here on Diagon Alley before his Third Year. But even then, he was watched, he was monitored, he hadn't truly been on his own. Despite this being much the same deal as then, he was still only a child as far as the adults were concerned, not a teenager with a couple years magical education under his belt (not to mention more than a few 'monsters' as well)! That first time with Hagrid, save for when he was getting fitted, the giant hadn't let Harry out of his sight for one minute! Something was going on here, something that...

"Meow!" Midnight called.

"Preck!" Hedwig gently nibbled on his ear.

Harry blinked and looked to his unfrozen familiar and then all around at the frozen world, and the Pause menu hovering in mid-air before him. This was the Game, the revelation came to him. Hagrid was giving him 'time' to further explore the Alley, to accomplish Quests, find the Hidden Secrets, gain more experience. The bit about having a time limit was somewhat worrying, but he'd saved his game, he wouldn't have to start completely over, not to mention his experience and level would carry over regardless!

Smiling widely, he petted his Familiars and said to them, "Midnight, Hedwig—Let's play! Start!"

END Level Three.


	4. Level Four: The Train

Level Four: "_The Train_"

*_New Objectives!_

"Finally!" Harry muttered as he woke up in his bedroom, formerly Dudley's ex-second bedroom/broken toy room. "It's been taking me forever to level up as it is!"

It had been an interesting summer for Harry since he'd finally gotten out of the loop of letting his letter be taken from him. Unfortunately, almost by default, he'd entered into a new loop of sorts. He was grateful he'd saved when he did, because he very quickly ran into a whole new slew of challenges from the Game. For starters, the part of the Pause menu called 'Challenges'? He'd found out what they were the hard way.

That was skipping ahead a bit though. Because the last time he had an easy level up _was_ on that first day Hagrid took him to Diagon Alley! Apparently the most experience he _could_ gain from the Game was by completing that day's Objectives, a guaranteed 100 EXP! And considering that each level up only cost 100 EXP, that right there was an instant Level Up right there!

He expected it to raise a bit more between each higher level, but it never did. Then he came across something that explained it and he didn't feel like changing it up right then. In short, he was playing the Game in Easy Mode right now. Hard Mode would have made it by like a 1000 EXP between levels, and then there was something called Real Mode. He didn't want to have to deal with that any time soon. Not until he had this figured out a bit better.

Anyway, the loop he'd been stuck in, apparently each and every single day had an 'Objective' that needed to be completed, and if it wasn't well it was the same as dying. After that first day, he'd woken up and just done whatever, played with Hedwig and Midnight a bit, and then got called a Game Over and found himself back in Diagon Alley, leaving Ollivander's shop!

At first he'd had no clue as to what had happened and just gone with it, expecting to have to go through the same Quests as he'd already completed. And while those Quests were still there... they granted him no EXP because he'd already completed them! He got the same, and sometimes different Items and whatnot, but no extra EXP! What a jip!

The next day, started the same, but knowing he was missing something, he paid close attention for any Quests or other things that he might have missed that day. Well, apparently he had missed some, as he discovered there were Hidden Secrets at the Dursley's same as with Mrs. Figg's and Diagon Alley. He still got a Game Over that night and had to start back in Diagon Alley. By that point, he'd gotten very familiar with each of the Quests and finished them in record time, and even discovered a larger number of the Hidden Secrets there in the Alley (even now on September 1st he'd only uncovered just under fifty of them!). He went to bed, and woke up the next morning.

Knowing for certain that he'd missed something obvious, he finally checked the Objectives for the day. And found "- _Complete at least (1) Challenge!_" there. Challenges, he very quickly discovered after that, were obscure mechanics that were similar to "Achievements" he remembered seeing for some of the games Dudley played on the XBox he'd gotten for the summer between his Fifth and Sixth years.

A prime example, that first Challenge he'd chosen to compete in; "Complete 5 Jobs in one day."

Jobs, as it turns out, are mini-Quests that pay money and Items, but EXP in the single digits. The most he'd ever gotten for completing a Job was 5 EXP, and it was the hardest of them all! At least around Privet Drive, which was the only area he could access at the moment. Even though he had a wand, he was clearly underage and the Knight Bus stopped showing up if he tried to summon them more than once a day.

As far as actual progress went, well, he did managed to get to Level 10 by September 1st, but that seemed to be by design, rather than hard work. As in, he'd only _just_ gotten to Level 10 the day before by completing that day's Objective, which only gave 5 EXP, and finally finding the last of the Secret Areas around Privet Drive and all the Hidden Secrets in all of them. While Diagon Alley held over 20 different Quests for a number of different Quest Holders, completing all of them left him at Level 7 and as previously stated, they did not award EXP after the first time. Although he did have a lot of stuff and discovered some new Creation Stations, (besides Clothing and Potion, there were also Forges and Alchemy stations, and rumors of an Enchanting Station but nobody knew where), and gotten access to *_two_* additional Vaults by completing Griphook's Quest, (turns out the Key was just misplaced and by 'returning' it, he also got access to the Potter Family Vault), not to mention all the little trinkets, and ingredients and Key Items other Quests netted him. After going through every single one of them _four_ times in a row though, it had gotten rather old.

He'd also filled his Spell Limit to capacity. Super annoying, having to limit, equip and unequip his spells like that, but at least the limit was 'twice whatever current level is', so now being Level 10 he could have 20 spells equipped at a time. That he knew 25 spells meant he had some in reserve. Besides, some of them, Thieves Hand and Fruit Stealer, were really only useful for the Quests that he learned them from in the first place and he didn't mind unequipping once he'd gotten their use form them.

He did find lots more Skill Points hidden all over the place, and discovered he was awarded a Skill Point every fifth level (Levels 5 and 10). He now had quite a few abilities, and his Familiar Skill was at the highest level it could be. Apparently doing this before Hogwarts had Unlocked something, but he hadn't been able to find out what specifically. Also, by choosing the Abilities for that 'Creature Path' (Do Little, Do More, Do Most, and Do Everything), it automatically gave him a 'Title' and an extra Ability on top of it, called Creature Bond, which in addition to letting him equip as many Familiars as he had (the Do Everything Ability), let him claim non-standard creatures as Familiars, such as dragons and phoenixes, but also animals that were not magical at all like birds and snakes. The Ability also claimed that at its highest level it would also let him claim sentient creatures as Familiars. Harry imagined that meant things like centaurs or merpeople, but at the same time a tiny voice whispered in the back of his mind that witches and wizards also, technically, counted as magical creatures.

The Title thing, that had thrown him for a loop the first time it came up. Turns out, even as he'd started at Level 1, he'd already had a number of them. Near as he could tell, the whole Title thing was sort of like one big resume, and some Titles allowed him to acquire certain Skills and Abilities, and there were some Jobs and even Quests that required he have a specific Title before allowing him to even attempt them. Thing is, he didn't know whether he did or didn't have a Title until either a conflict or opportunity came up regarding it.

He'd finally taken a look at his Grimoire and found his complete list of Titles, which were; Player, Potter Heir, Black Heir, Boy-Who-Lived, Chosen One, (here is where he'd started to acquire new Titles by playing), Hogwarts Student, Explorer 4(by finding all the Hidden Secrets of the number of Locations fully searched), Vault Owner 3, Wizard (by having a wand), Zookeeper (the title earned from fully developing the Familiar Skill), Volunteer, Challenger, and Potion Maker. On that last one, he got it after he managed to successfully brew a single potion. He couldn't help it, it was one of the Challenges and the stupid Objective thing had him taking on at least one challenge a day for the entire month and a half he'd been waiting for this day!

Which was why he was so relieved, because _finally_ he had more than one Objective. Before, the Alert had been "New Objective", now it was saying "New Objective_s_"! Which meant there was greater opportunity for leveling up. That it came on September First wasn't much of a surprise to him.

Last new development was the whole Trunk thing. That was, in addition to being where he could equip and unequip everything not a Spell, where he could Save the Game. It also advertized that he could switch out Unlocked Avatars with it, but seeing as he had yet to do anything like that, he hadn't been able to try that yet. Still, it was surprising when he got home from Questing that first evening and opened up his Trunk to see a whole slew of Screens popping up one after the other.

Yawning, he got out of bed and stepped over to aforementioned Trunk and kicked it open.

***TRUNK***

INVENTORY , BANK , EQUIPMENT , SKILLS & ABILITIES , FEATURES

"Equipment," he selected. Instantly, the screen displayed inside the trunk changed to a list of his equipable items and their status. He changed from his 'Comfy Pajamas' to his standard loadout. The pajamas had actually been one of those item rewards he got for some quest or another. He didn't really remember.

Right now, he was equipping pretty much the same loadout he had that first day, besides his Advanced Mokeskin Utility Belt, Fully Upgraded Omnilens, Super Stealth Shoes, Defense Ring, Band of Attack, Waterbreathing Amulet, and Jumping Jockstrap that is. Well, he was still wearing the Chameleon Suit anyway!

Between the cash rewards, and the fact that technically he didn't really run out of money with _three_ Vaults to call upon, he went ahead and upgraded his items the moment he was of the minimum level to do so. This was actually his fourth utility belt, and the most useful by and far. The rest, well besides the Shoes, the rest were actually rewards from various Quests, as previously stated. The jewelry all came from Diagon Alley Quests, but ironically his underwear, (lets be honest, that is exactly what it is), which also increased his jumping and running ability by a factor of three, was actually acquired from one of the Quests he'd stumbled upon here on Privet Drive, and _not_ from Mrs. Figg either!

That surprise aside, they all did pretty much what it sounded like. The ring, which was just a simple silver band with a green jewel on it that matched his eyes, boosted his Defense Rating by 15%. The band, which he wore on his wand hand, looked like a simple bronze bracelet, minus the fact that it was skintight, had no clasp to open or close it with, and was the most comfortable thing he'd ever worn on his wrists before that is, it also boosted his Attack Rating by 25% when using attack spells, and 10% when attacking physically made it pretty worth it. The only thing the Amulet did, and he had tested it, was let him breath and swim underwater like he'd eated Gillyweed... just without the transformation or the flippers and the gills and the actually eating Gillyweed part.

His Omnilens, which is where most of his money had gone this summer, had been fully upgraded to everything available and on the market. Additional upgrades were promised for sometime around the New Year, but already there were so many awesome features that he couldn't help grinning uncontrollably everytime he thought about them. There were seven 'upgrades' possible to his Omnilens, so unfortunately if he ever wanted to get a new upgrade at some point, he would have to switch out one of his current ones, or get a brand new set of Omnilens. He'd gotten the ones called; Scope, Scouter, Target, Thermal, Rec/Play, X-Ray, and Booster.

The Scope and Scouter options came with the model that he'd chosen and allowed him telescopic and microscopic views to his already perfect vision, while the Scouter did something much more useful. It had taken him a while to get used to it after that first time, which was a surprise, but basically the Scouter function analyzed who or whatever he was looking at and gave him the same basic stats that the Game showed for him when leveling up. It worked just fine for most wizards and witches and animals, even his Familiars. A couple, however, such as Ollivander, the Level was obscured or unknown and a couple other stats were likewise hidden from it. He was sure that future upgrades would overcome such weaknesses.

The Target upgrade was just as if not more useful, as it basically allow him to lock on to a target and visually confirm that it would be hit, or whatever. There were plenty of times where Harry cast a spell intending to hit something, only for either his aim to be off or the target to move at the last second. The Target feature completely removed that possibility from happening. At least it had so far. Harry was a lot more confident about his dueling abilities after this. Too bad his First Year didn't have much dueling in it.

Rec/Play actually stood for Record and Replay, the same feature as what was put into the Omniculars Harry remembered having for the Quidditch World Cup. Worked much the same way, only it was controlled by voice commands instead of knobs and switches on the sides. Harry expected he would find a number of uses for it soon enough.

Thermal and X-Ray were the really expensive upgrades that he'd had to save up for by completing Quests and lots of Jobs before getting. Thermal was Level resctricted to Level 7, and as previously noted, X-Ray was restricted to Level 10 or above. So while he'd only had it for a day, he'd started using it immediately of course. Thermal was exactly that, it let him see sources of heat as different colors than the surrounding air, and living creatues were more distinct than most. He could only really imagine using it when Dementers were in the area as determining what areas _not_ to go near, but already he'd used the feature on a few Jobs and at least one Quest where it was all but invaluable. X-Ray... was not what he'd thought it was. Instead of seeing through clothes, he just plain saw through _everything_. So it wasn't people going around naked, but a bunch of walking blue skeletons and see-through walls. It would help him with the whole Stealth thing he was going on, staying hidden while seeing exactly who and what was nearby so he could better avoid them.

For now though, he used it sparingly, no real use at the moment.

The final upgrade was called Booster. Harry had only activated that feature once, just to see what it did. He was not disappointed, and glad he'd spent the money on it, despite it being the most expensive thing he'd bought in the Game so far. Even more than the Omnilens themselves cost. All it did, basically, was by draining his MP, every single other feature and upgrade of his Omnilens were increased to unbelievable levels.

Scope went from cheap store bought telescope and microscope ranges, to ultra classified Top Secret Military grade Space Telescopes and Electron Microscopes. Scouter, well... Ollivander was Level 212, and 5913 EXP points from the next level up. Target at the regular level only let him light up one target at a time. Boosted, it let him select multiple targets, choose the order, the spell, the intensity, and the speed at which they were taken down. Thermal let him see the surface temperature of everything he could see with Scope down to the point hundredth degree of whatever scale he wanted to use (he'd currently set it to use Kelvin, a bit more accurate than the others he decided). X-Ray, still didn't let him see the flesh on those blue bones, but he had previously noted that there were one or two places that he _couldn't_ see through, which was how he'd discovered the last few Secrets around Privet Drive and Diagon Alley as Boosting let him see through _everything_! He hadn't tried anything with the Rec/Play with Booster yet, not much point.

After squaring away his Equipment, he checked the Skills & Abilities and switched out a couple other spells and read through his Abilities list one final time. Natural Flying Talent, Parselmouth, Creature Bond, Omnilens(+), Waterbreathing, Run/Jump(+), Disguise, 'Hidden In Plain Sight', Green Thumb, 'Felix's Cousin', Monster Finder, Rune Reader, and Hero Mode.

Thankfully there was no upper limit on Abilities or Skills, like there were with Spells. Albeit, the Skills were pretty basic, and most of those Abilities he was looking at that didn't come from his Equipment, were either passive in nature, or so specific to a purpose that they were useless in absolutely every other situation!

The only ones that actually let him _do_ extra stuff was the Omnilens, Run/Jump, Hidden In Plain Sight, and Hero Mode. Parselmouth, Waterbreathing, Green Thumb, and Rune Reader were the ones that were specific but otherwise useless; talking to snakes pretty useless with no snakes around, only mattered when underwater, only mattered when dealing with plants (but he'd gotten it so he would have less to worry about from Herbology this time around), and the last one let him read and understand runes, and not everything is written in runes.

The rest were all passive in nature, giving him a boost to his stats or having some effect going full time that he had absolutely no control over. Creature Bond, awesome as it was to be able to have as many Familiars as he wanted plus some, only mattered when it came to his Familiars. So, useful, but passive and always active and not really letting him 'do' much. Disguise boosted his Stealth by 10 points and for every level he gave it, that boosted it another 10 points on top of it. He'd been hoping that it would have allowed him to find ways of hiding his scar or disguising who he was when he got it, but no all it did was boost his Stealth. Felix's Cousin, did the same thing with his Luck. But then he'd known that going in for that Ability. Heaven knows he needs all the luck he can get, and hey, once he levels up that ability, it promises an opportunity to upgrade to a new ability called 'Felix's Brother', boosting his luck even more. Last of the passives was Monster Finder, and besides the cool name, all it did was make "monster encounters more frequent by 10%" which he figured meant more fighting which he wanted if only for the EXP gaining opportunities.

Closing it down, he shut the Trunk and then gestured to Hedwig and Midnight. Still his only two Familiars, but not for lack of looking. He picked up his Trunk, grateful for the Featherlight charms placed on it and made his way down stairs. He would have been worried about needing animal carriers for his Familiars, but earlier explorations had demonstrated that while he could level up and gain new Abilities and Skills, now so too could his Familiars, and one Quest around Privet Drive had enabled the both of them to acquire an Ability that let them stay with him no matter where he went and nobody and nothing could stop them.

"Leaving for school now, probably be back next June," Harry called to his relatives as he left through the front door. He heard no response beyond a disinterest grunt from Vernon in his recliner. He stepped to the street and raised his wand.

***Knight Bus Summoned***

What Is Your Destination?

_Privet Drive (Home)_

_Diagon Alley_

_Kings Cross Station (Hogwarts Express)_

"Kings Cross Station," Harry selected even as he stepped on board the purple triple decker bus, which had appeared at the same moment as the screen for it had. "Hogwarts Express. Skip!"

That was the most awesome part of this, Harry decided as his final word had interrupted Stan as he began his usual spiel. While time still, technically, passed, to him it was only moments of walking onto the bus and sitting down, before the ride was over and he was stepping off in front of London's most well-known train station.

"All right then, here we go," he said to his Familiars and proceeded to the Platform.

***KINGS CROSS STATION***

***New Location Discovered***

_"Kings Cross Station: Kings Cross is an Open Area where it is possible to access and get travel to any other Major Area in the British Isles (Country Area). There are also nearly hundreds of other Non-Magical Open Areas that can be accessed from here, in addition to the two Magical Open Areas; __Platform 9 3/4__, and __Hogwarts__. There are (500) Hidden Items/Secrets. Discover them all for extra Rewards!"_

Harry gaped. "Five hundr— wait, _Non-_Magical Open Areas?! Sonuva—!" Harry was cursing himself out for missing the obvious now that it was staring him in the face. He ignored Hedwig and Midnight's amusement at his impotent anger. Then he realized that he'd forgotten something important. Stopping when he got to the pillar between Platforms 9 and 10 where the portal was, he sat his Trunk down and said, "Pause! Objectives!"

***Objectives***

_- Complete 1 New Challenge_

_COMPLETE - Locate Kings Cross Station_

_- Locate Platform 9 3/4_

_- Board Hogwarts Express_

_- Complete Quest: "Are you really?"_

_- Complete Quest: "Leaping Longbottoms!"_

_- Locate Hogwarts_

_- Complete Quest: "The Wrong Sort"_

_- Complete Tutorial_

"Aw hell," he grumbled. "Done. Challenges!"

***You have a New Challenge!***

_(NEW) Challenge: Helpful Heathen__ - "Help at least one fellow witch or wizard onto the Platform."_

_Would you like to accept the Challenge?_

**YES/NO**

"Well at least it's not a bunch of jobs within a time limit," he grunted. "Yes." A clock appeared at the top of his vision and remained there no matter where or what he looked at. "Me and my big mouth. Hedwig, find Hermione, let me know the moment you've found her. Midnight, track. Find any muggleborn wizards in the station and then tell me where. Go."

Hedwig bobbed her head once and then faded from view, becoming a ghost of an owl, at least to Harry's eyes, while he knew she was completely invisible to everyone else. Midnight, on the other hand, just sort of melded in with the background and surroundings before disappearing into a see of unmoving legs. Harry loved his Familiars. He looked forward to adding to their ranks.

Giving his Familiars time to complete their own tasks, Harry left the world on pause and went back to the Objectives screen. The Quests being objectives concerned him somewhat, simply because they had never been a part of them before. The Objectives had been and were only (as far as he knew) for progressing the Game along a similar path his life had taken originally, while allowing him to avoid some of those things he'd regretted most, such as being unable to keep his first Hogwarts letter, and wasting time between his birthday and September 1st when he could have been studying and preparing and such things like that. The simple and obvious answer was that those listed Quests were somehow vital to progressing the Game, but he couldn't see how at this point.

Unfortunately, until he'd either accepted or at the least encountered a Quest, he had no way of accessing any information about it. Once he had though, then he could look in his Grimoire for all sorts of useful information about it. He stopped and considered that for a moment. Could having them listed as Objectives count as 'encountering' them?

Looking at the Quest titles again, he could certainly make some guesses as to what they might be or might involve. 'Are you really?' was the first thing Hermione said to him after he'd introduced himself, so safe bet it first of all had something to do with Hermione, and secondly had to do with him announcing himself as Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived. 'Leaping Longbottoms', could be almost anything, but knowing what he did about Neville, he was almost 100% positive it had to do with finding the absentminded boy's toad, Trevor. 'The Wrong Sort' though, that was a bit misleading. For one thing, that was something Malfoy had said to him the first time they'd met, but at the same time it might be referring to the Sorting Hat. Then there was the fact that it came _after_ the Objective for locating Hogwarts. No way to be certain on that.

Midnight returned and indicated he'd found something useful. Harry, noting the clock hadn't yet started since he was still on Pause, kept things paused and followed the kneazle through the frozen crowd of people. He picked up some Skill Points they came across along the way, and even had to go through a Secret Area, which held a treasure chest, a bag of gold, and another three Skill Points. Eventually they came to a girl his age and her parents, lugging along her trunk and other things on a trolley. Midnight stopped and meowed at him.

"Good job, Midnight," he knelt and rubbed the kneazle's head, pulling a treat (+1 Intelligence) and feeding it to his Familiar. "Go back and guard the Trunk, would you? If Hedwig is there, tell her to wait and I'll be there soon. Go." The kneazle went.

Taking a closer look at the young witch, Harry quickly realized that—he did not recognize her! She was 11 years old, a couple inches shorter than him, shoulder length straight red hair and pale white skin with leaf green eyes. Stepping behind them, so he wouldn't just appear out of nowhere, he Started the world back up and then raced to catch up to them as the three of them were moving at a rather quick pace. They were already on Platform 10 by the time he caught up with them.

"It makes no logical sense," the mother was saying to the father. "There should be signs at the least, or an attendant to assist newcomers. I'm starting to have second thoughts about this as it is."

"And what part of a Scottish woman in antiquated attire appearing out of nowhere and defying multple laws of physics indicate that these... people are logical in any way?" the father replied.

"That would be Professor McGonagall, correct?" Harry interrupted them when he saw the girl getting a panicked look on her face, wringing her hands.

"Yes, I'm sorry, who are you?" the mother snapped, her tone harsh but clearly that was from her curiosity than any sort of anger. Harry was familiar with Hermione's own curiosity getting the better of her empathy, so he didn't take it personally. He did feel some sympathy for the girl though, having to grow up with it.

"Harry Potter, First Year student to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Need help getting onto the Platform?" he offered.

"If you are also a First Year student, how do you know how to get onto this mysterious platform? And where are your parents?" she snapped.

Harry blinked and reexamined his opinion of the woman, while feeling a greater amount of sympathy for the mystery girl. "The whole Statute of Secrecy _was_ explained to you, right?" he confirmed, worried.

"Hn," the woman sniffed and rolled her eyes. Rolling his own eyes at his wife's actions, the father stepped forward and smiled neutrally as he said, "Yes, it was. We have some... difference of opinion in that regard, but our Willow here wants to give this a try, and we did promise her that she could try it for one year."

"Fair enough, I suppose," Harry said just as neutral. "American then? It'll be quite a commute, but well worth it, or so I hear. As for the Platform, it's hidden for a reason. I can show you, if you'd like, or you could ask the constable over there and make fools of yourselves. I found it just a few minutes ago myself and in realizing the trouble I had with it, I figured there would be other new students having the same trouble. I took it upon myself to do my civic duty and help those that I could."

"Very well then, lead the way, young man," the father smiled more genuinely and they followed him back to the pillar where his trunk still sat.

"Oh wow, you got a trunk too, and look there's a kitty on it, he's a big kitty, I don't recognize the breed, is he a magic cat, how did you find the way onto the platform, how are we getting to Hogwarts, do you know much magic, my name is Willow, by the way, Willow Rosenberg," the redhead said all in one breath.

"Midnight is a kneazle, a magical creature, not necessarily your standard cat," he said more slowly, and quiet enough that they would not be easily overheard. "And hello, Willow. My name is Harry, Harry Potter. Please call me Harry. Now, the trick is, you have to go through this side of the pillar here. Might help if you built up a bit of a run and closed your eyes. And apparently if your parents want to get on the Platform with you, they have to be holding onto you directly when you go through, otherwise the portal won't let them in."

"That is absurd! This is some kind of prank to humiliate my daughter!" the mother screamed at him. Thankfully it was mostly covered up by the raw noise of the two platforms they stood between.

The father knelt down and said to Willow, "Dear, what kitty are you talking about? There's no kitty, and even if there was, animals are not allowed outside of their carriers."

Harry sighed and tried very hard not to roll his eyes. He failed. Turning to his Familiar, he nodded and said, "Midnight?"

"Meow," the kneazle gave its version of a shrug and became visible to the two muggle parents.

"What—but—there wasn't—how?" the father stuttered, staring in awe as the cat seemingly appeared out of thin air to his eyes.

"Illusion," the mother stubbornly refused to believe.

"Of course students are allowed onto the Platform on their own, nothing stopping them certainly," Harry winked at the redhead. She smiled and giggled.

"Hoo!"

Harry looked up and held out his arm. Hedwig landed and made herself visible once more, startling Willow, but not her parents. Gotta love magical animals. Getting an impression of direction from his owl, he nodded his thanks and smiled back at Willow and her family, while simultaneously giving Midnight permission to go Unnoticed once more.

"I'll be right back, wait here for just one moment please?" he asked and then turned and walked away. He followed the sense of directional impression Hedwig had left him with and soon found himself meeting his friend for the first time.

"Hi there," he smiled and greeted Hermione and her parents. "Need help getting onto the Platform?"

***PLATFORM NINE AND THREE QUARTERS***

***New Location Discovered***

It had taken more cajoling than it really should have, but within five minutes of allowing the clock to start, Harry had completed the Challenge and helped _two_ people onto the Platform. He got some money and experience for it, mostly because he'd 'found' the Platform actually, stupid Open Area had another 100 Hidden Secrets—not counting the 500 of Kings Cross in general! Even more important, he'd completed three more of his Objectives. The Quest "Are You Really?" was given the moment he entered Platform 9 3/4, and _all_ it was, was that he had to introduce himself as Harry Potter to three or more people and accept whatever Quests they offered. Apparently the girls parents counted as 'people' in this case and the only Quests the two offered in return was that they sit in the same compartment, which he did.

Only thing left to do was to Board the Hogwarts Express and find Neville to complete the Quest "Leaping Longbottoms". After that, the rest had to be done at Hogwarts itself. So, in the remaining time he had, Harry decided to do some exploring on the Platform, maybe squeeze in another few Quests and get as much EXP and Rewards as he could.

Turns out he could actually leave the Platform back to Kings Cross, and the best part was that he could Pause and still go between Areas and it would still be Paused, meaning that instead of wasting his time walking around looking for things to do, he could Pause, find those things, do them and get the Rewards, then Pause again in order to find something else to do. Whats more, turns out that either there were supposed to be a LOT more students in his Year, or the Game had changed things WAY more than he could have expected.

Harry found another *DOZEN* muggleborn First Years wandering the Station, looking for Platform 9 3/4. The first time Midnight had found the next muggleborn, Harry double-checked the listed Challenges, and sure enough there was an untimed Challenge for getting 10 or more muggleborn students onto the Platform. It gave him a lot more Stat Bonuses and each of them that he helped gave him a cool and useful item. Besides Willow, there was another American, a boy calling himself Xander that was looking for her rather than the Platform itself. About half of the rest of them were also American, and the rest at least European. There were the weird sisters who clamed to be from the Blackrose Coven, named Tarot and Raven respectively. There was a blonde by the name Sabrina Spellman, very perky, and her Familiar, named Salem, which could speak English. Then there was the girl whose father was extremely strict and dressed in a tuxedo and top hat, her name was Zatanna Zatara. She gave him a bowtie. The rest, in order, were Rose Tyler, Amelia Pond, Rory Williams, Viktor von Doom, Wednesday Adams, and Nanoha Takamachi. Wednesday might have actually been American, but her accent was so plain and monotone, nobody could say for sure.

In addition to playing Recruiter, (his new Title for completing the Challenge about getting at least 10 people onto the Platform), there were seven individual Quests, small things really, on the Platform, and a solid 20 Quest holders in Kings Cross, each with _at least_ one extra Quest. Between all that and completing half his Objectives, he managed to Level up before so much as setting foot on the train. More than once too!

(Harry James Potter) Level:

Level 12 (1125)

Health (HP): 315 (+30 Familiar) (+33 Familiar)

Magic (MP): 333 (+40 Familiar) (+50 Familiar)

Stamina: 308 (+3 Utility Belt)

Charisma: 25 (+1 Chameleon Suit) (+6 Familiar)

Stealth: 61 (+7 Familiar) (+1 Chameleon Suit) (+25 Super Stealth Shoes)

Intelligence: 39 (+6 Familiar) (+6 Familiar) (+5 Bookworm) (+1 Hogwarts, A History)

Abilities: Natural Flying Talent, Parselmouth, Creature Bond, Omnilens (+), Waterbreathing (+), Run/Jump(+), Disguise, Hidden In Plain Sight: 2, Green Thumb, Felix's Cousin: 3, Monster Finder, Rune Reader, Hero Mode

Skills: Familiar Grand Master, Hide Skill: 2, Sneak Skill: 4, "Harry Hunting Bonus", "Bookworm Bonus", Potions: 1, Charms: 2, Transfiguration: 2, Gardening: 1, Cooking, Cleaning, Yard Work, Tracker: 1, Conversation, . . . (See More?)

Spells: 29

"Whew," Harry wiped his brow as the numbers finished their shuffling. "So, you two ready?"

His Familiars nodded and Harry then chose to level them up, as they'd gained EXP alongside him for the Quests he had them participate in, though obviously they had different stats than him and different ways of leveling up in the first place.

**Familiar**: Kneazle

Name - Midnight

HP - 32

MP - 45

Skill - Language (English), Truthscent(*), Camoflauge(*), Battle Companion: 2, Soul Bond (_Nothing can separate that which is eternal. Familiars can go Unnoticed_), Track(_Familiar can track a specific target_)(*).

Abilities - +7 Intelligence, +10 Stealth (_Camoflauge_), 10% Bonus to Attack Rating, 5% Bonus to Critical Rating.

**Familiar:** Owl

Name - Hedwig

HP - 35

MP - 60

Skills - Language (English), Post Owl, Battle Companion: 2, Link, Flight(*), Soul Bond (_Nothing can separate that which is eternal. Familiars can go Unnoticed._), Disillusionment (_Familiar becomes invisible, mostly._)(*).

Abilities - +6 Intelligence, +7 Charisma, +5% Attack Rating, +5% Defense Rating

He maxed out their more useful Skills, the Soul Bond didn't have levels simply because it either was or it wasn't, and gave the Battle Companion Skill one extra level to it simply because he either had to use'em or lose'em, and he knew that by Level 15 he could give them new Skills to start leveling up after that. Not to mention, raising their stats further raised his after the fact, but he didn't care to see how much. As it was, once he'd completed the last of the available Quests, he saw that it was only a few minutes to 11, so he went ahead and returned to the Platform.

Only to be held up as a very familiar voice called out through the crowd, "... filled with muggles..."

Harry blinked and did a double-take. Sure enough, marching along with rack after rack of trunks, were the Weasleys. Smiling with fond memories, Harry couldn't help but want to relive this bit of nostalgia no matter what the Game was trying to do. Sneaking up behind them, just as Percy was about to go through, Harry tugged on Mrs. Weasley's sleeve and said to her, "Excuse me? Are you trying to get onto the Platform?"

"Oh! Hello dear, I didn't see you there," she said, startled. "What was that? I'm sorry. Having trouble getting onto the Platform, deal?"

"Actually," he patiently corrected her, "I was checking to see if you needed help. I heard you mention to your extremely cute daughter there that you'd forgotten what Platform the Hogwarts Express is leaving from, so I thought I might offer my services. I've helped a number of people already today and I would enjoy continuing to offer them to you and your handsome, and cute, family."

OK, so maybe he was hamming it up a bit, and things weren't going exactly as he remembered, but he couldn't help himself. The Weasleys, much more than the Dursleys that is for certain, were his family and to see them all alive and well warmed his heart more than seeing Hedwig and Hagrid had. Not to mention seeing Ginny again, though she was younger and cuter, he still felt what he felt for her. Whether that was love, deep affection, or just plain old fashioned lust, he couldn't say for sure, but he was optimistic in hoping it was love.

"Oh, aren't you a sweetheart," Mrs. Weasley laughed, her smile warm and genuine. "Percy, you go ahead, I'll see the rest of them through, and come with young Mister...?" she trailed off, expectantly.

He smiled warmly up at her, glad his Omnilens managed to disguise his eyes just enough that nobody looked twice at him, and he'd long since learned to style his hair to hide his scar without making it look suspicious. "You can call me Harry, madame. I'm curious," he lowered his voice as Percy went through, "You are clearly a family of... experienced alumni of Hogwarts. Why the trouble in finding the Platform? Was it closed or something last year?"

"Oh no, nothing like that, dear," she flushed, rushing the twins through without calling their names like last time. "I was just..."

"I don't get to go to Hogwarts this year," Ginny interrupted her mother, a severe pout on her fact. Harry squashed the instinct to kiss it away, though it was difficult. "Mum was trying to make me feel better. Don't look shocked Mom. We play the game often enough." She giggled at the exasperated look she'd caused on her mother's expression.

"I take back what I said before about you being cute," Harry said to the younger girl. Then he smiled mischieviously and said, "You are adorable. Can I marry you?"

***You Have Proposed Marriage***

[CHARISMA CHECK]

Harry blinked, but kept the smile on his face. They were 11 and 10 respectively. No way would the Game actually try and...

"Yeah, OK, you seem like a decent enough guy, even if you're not Harry Potter," Ginny giggled again.

"What does Harry Potter have to do with anything?" he asked, curious.

"Oh, it—it's nothing, I—I..." she blushed crimson and ducked her head, hiding her face.

Perhaps being a bit too bold, Harry reached forward and tilted her head back up so he could look her in the eye. He lowered his Omnilens and though she was a bit blurry around the edges they were close enough he could still see her face, he said, "Tell me. Please?"

"I—I've always dreamed of marrying Harry Potter. He's the Boy-Who-Lived, the hero of our world, and—and he's my age! Well, almost. He's a living legend and I grew up hearing all about what happened to him and what he did and... and whenever I dreamed of growing up and marrying someone, I always dreamed it would be him, Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived. But it's just a dream, never going to happen. I'll probably never even meet him, not for real."

"Well," Harry shrugged, putting his Omnilens back on, "I may not be the Harry Potter you gre up wanting to marry, but I still think you are adorable, so how about it?"

She smiled and nodded, laughing. "Sure. I'll marry you. Want to shake on it?"

"Why not?" he held out his hand, to be surprised as nothing else when she pulled her own palm back, spit in it and held it out afresh. After a moment to get over his surprise, he smiled more genuinely and did the same. The moment their hands touched, both of them were surrounded by a golden glow and a Phoenix Song could be heard, while everything around them froze.

*_Your Relationship Status has changed!_

***New Relationship***

**Ginny Weasley: RL10**

_"Relationship Level has Evolved! Ginny Weasley is now your Fiance! Automatic Evolution to Relationship Level 10 - Faithful! To further Evolve your Relationship, you must take and pass the 'Ship Quiz!"_

Harry blinked and finally had to be reminded to let go of—apparently his fiance's—hand and go through the Portal to the Platform. Just as the whistle sounded to board, Harry snapped out of his fugue state and turned to Ginny and whispered into her ear rather quickly, "By the way, my name just so happens to be Harry James Potter. I wasn't lying to you, I'm not the fantasy you grew up with. But I look forward to finding out about you, Ginevra Molly Weasley. I'll owl you later." Then he stole a kiss on her cheek and hurried on board and to his reserved cabin, which was quite full of people now. Love those expanding compartments!

Looking back, he saw a stunned fiance staring after him, stars in her eyes, but also a look of realization slowly dawning on her. He waved goodbye and saw her wave in return and then he was lost in the crowd and the halls of the Hogwarts Express.

Only to run smack dab into a screen just inside the door to the main compartment hallway. Rubbing his nose and with a single word of, "Ow." he backed up and read it.

***Hogwarts Express***

_"Do You Wish To Depart For Hogwarts Now?"_

**YES/NO**

Looking at the time, he saw that there were still five or more minutes before 11 o'clock, and he'd been intending on spending a few minutes just chatting with his friends in their compartment. So he gave the obvious response and selected, "No." The next thing he was aware of, he was back on the Platform, stepping off the train.

Looking back at the train and then all around him, he looked up at the ceiling and said as sarcastically as he could, sarcasm knob turned to 11, sarcastic engines to full, "Seriously?"

Then, with a heavy sigh, he turned around and walked back onto the train, avoiding the screen only by saying, "Yes," before it had even fully formed. In the next instant, as in he'd been walking into the hall in the first instant and by the time it was over and the next began, he was closing the door of his compartment behind him and sitting down between Hermione and Zatanna, while the rest of those he'd 'Recruited' spread out and sat with whoever they felt like sitting with. He noted in particular that Xander seemed to be trapped between his best friend Willow on one side, and Wednesday Adams on the other. Amelia, Rory and Rose seemed to be getting along well together, talking about some mutual friend that he had little clue about. Ironically, the sisters, Tarot and Raven were not sitting together. Instead Tarot had befriended Nanoha and Sabrina, while Raven and Viktor were sitting next to each other, though not talking.

Before any real conversation could be started, there was a knock on the door and it slid open. "Hi," Ron Weasley said, his eyes gravitating straight to me, "I was wondering if... uh, I could... uh..." he trailed off when he saw the dozen or so people already filling the compartment. Finally he seemed to gather himself and ask, "If I could join you?"

It was only after the question was asked that Harry remembered Ron mentioning something about everywhere else being full the first time around. '_Huh, did Ron lie and just seek me out because Fred and George mentioned I was on the train? Or did he just want to sit with the lonely boy with no friends? Guess I'll never know, and the Game screws everything up anyway._'

Harry glanced around and saw no hostile looks, so he shrugged and said, "Sure. Let me help you with your trunk there. There's room next to Viktor and Raven there." Once Ron was squared away, Harry quickly resumed his spot between Zatana and Hermione. "So, introductions are in order I guess?" he tried to break the ice.

"Well, you did bring us all together, Harry," Hermione logically observed.

"Fair enough," he smiled at her, surprised when she blushed at him and looked away. "I'll go first then. My name is Harry Potter. Yes, _that_ Harry Potter. Yes, I really have the scar. No, I don't really remember that night beyond a flash of green light, which I have frequent nightmares about. No, I have not read the books about me. No, very little, if any of what is written in those books are true. Yes, I have two Familiars; Hedwig, my owl, and Midnight, a kneazle. Both can understand English, but unlike Salem, they don't speak it. Did I miss anything?"

"You know how conceited you sound right now?" Raven snarked.

"Raven!" Tarot, her redheaded sister snapped.

"Indubitably," he replied in his most Malfoy-sounding voice, before breaking out with laughter. A few, Hermione and Ron included, joined in. "Let's just say that every time somebody has learned my name, they ask the same questions. The _same_ questions, _every time_. They also mention, _constantly_, that I look just like my father and have my mother's eyes. It's gotten... old."

"I can imagine," the pale black-haired witch remarked, though with considerably less venom than before.

"Who's next? Raven?" he sat down.

They all remained quiet, glancing around nervously. Harry sighed and activated his Scouter Mode, and gave it a brief Boost, long enough to get some extra information. "Fine, I'll introduce everyone then. Raven 'Hex' Blackrose, eleven years old, a couple weeks from being twelve. Father is John Blackrose, mother is Holly Blackrose. Sister is," he paused and glanced over at the redhead, "Rowan 'Tarot' Blackrose, just turned eleven eight days ago. Members of the Black Rose Coven of Salem, Massachusetts in America. You, Raven do not have a Familiar, but you do have an affinity for the Dark Arts, well darker. Rowan—sorry, Tarot has an equal affinity for Divination, and her Familiar is a flying cat goes by the name Pooka."

He smiled, and leaned back. "Should I continue, or would everyone like to introduce themselves?"

"That... was so cool!" Xander exclaimed.

"How did you know all that?!" Raven and Tarot both demanded at once.

"Secret," he laughed, and if he wasn't wearing his Omnilens, he was sure his eyes would be twinkling. No wonder Dumbledore got such a kick out of this stuff. "OK, OK, OK, fine! Enough with the death glares." He sighed and took off his Omnilens. "When I went shopping for my school supplies, I splurged a bit and got these. They're called Omnilens. I already wore glasses, these just made it overall better. And I... may have gotten some... extras thrown in."

"Like what?" Xander asked, a glint in his eyes.

"Blimey!" Ron exclaimed. "I've heard of those. The base model is supposed to be real expensive though!"

"It was," Harry assured them. "As for the extras," he shrugged and handed them over, "Try'em out Xander. You tell us."

"Sweet!" the enthusiastic boy grabbed the Omnilens and put them on. "Holy—! These things have X-Ray vision!"

"WHAT?!" every girl in the cabin screamed, half of them covering themselves, the other half reaching to slap either Harry or Xander.

"It's not like that!" Harry quickly corrected, laughing while ducking slaps from Zatanna. "Go ahead and activate it Xander. What it means by X-Ray is a _full_ x-ray. You see nothing but blue colored bones and outlines of walls and stuff. Nothing else! I swear!"

"Oh man this is sooo cool!" Xander exclaimed. "How do you not do this all the time? WHAAA!"

He screamed and pulled the Omnilens off his face and threw them away, where Harry thankfully caught them before they were broken. Putting them back on, he glanced up and saw what had made Xander scream. Grimacing, he put them back in default mode. "Because of things like that," he answered Xander's question. At the curious looks he and the now-thumb-sucking Xander received, he clarified.

"There's a giant spider on the roof of the train right now, and apparently it is not alone. As for how I knew what I did about you two, there's also something called Scouter Mode, and whatever I'm looking at, I just get a list of general stats. Like name, age, relations, etc. And before anybody complains, I really do need them to see, I'm practically blind without them."

*_Your Relationship Status has changed!_

The alert was the only thing to appear thankfully. For just a moment he was worried that he'd inadvertantly proposed to somebody but no screens popped up to further elaborate. It had been a while, but he would probably need to go through the Hints again to find out what he could about Relationship Levels.

"So, do I keep introducing everyone, or...?" he trailed off, looking around expectantly.

With a sigh, Hermione rolled her eyes and spoke up. "My name is Hermione Jean Granger, I am eleven years old, though my birthday is later this month. My parents are dentists, I only found out about magic earlier this summer when I got my letter, but every spell I've tried since then from the books have worked very well. And I have no siblings."

"Hm," Zatanna nodded and smiled. "My name is Zatanna Zatara, daughter of Giovanni Zatara, the world famous illusionist. Magic, you could say, is part of my life and always has been. And you should know that you never ask a woman her age. _Sessalg eb deyortsed!_"

Harry's wand was in his hand in an instant and the spell spoken almost as an afterthought, "_Protego Finite_!" Casting the canceling variation of the shield spell. "Nice try, Z."

"Hmph!" she pouted and muttered under her breath, "_Diputs yob og gniylf_."

Ron suddenly was ejected from his seat and hit the ceiling, quite painfully, before dropping back down to the floor, flat on his face.

"Wow, that was not nice," Harry chastised. "Ron isn't _that_ stupid!"

Half the people there laughed out loud, the rest held their giggles inside as best they could.

"Harry, mate, do me a favor and leave me out of your girl troubles," the redhead mumbled from the floor.

Harry just shrugged and replied, "I'll try and do my best, Ron."

*_Your Relationship Status has changed!_

He momentarily frowned, but still no screen popped up to elaborate.

"Fine, I'll go next," the perky blonde next to Tarot spoke up. "My name is Sabrina Spellman, I'm also eleven years old, and I live with my Aunts and Salem here in Manchester, Massechusetts. I only found out I'm a witch after I found myself floating over my bed one night, and at first my Aunts were going to home school me, but then the whole Exchange Program because Salem Institute kind of..."

"Blew up from a volcano?" Xander supplied.

"Yeah. So now I'm going to Hogwarts," she finished with a shrug.

"I am Takamichi Nanoha," the brunette next to her spoke up. "I am 10 years old, and I am from Japan, thank you very much." Oddly her voice didn't really match up with her lips, which continued to move for several moments after her voice had stopped talking. "And I apologize, but the translation spell put on my does not seem to be working as it should so I beg your forgiveness."

"So that's why language specifies English," he muttered to Hedwig on his shoulder. "Any chance you can learn Japanese to help her out, girl?" Hedwig shook her head rather emphatically. The emotional impression he got from her told him she was suggesting he might look into acquiring additional Familiars if he wanted a live translator.

"I'm Xander Harris," the other boy in the compartment spoke up. "From good old Sunnyhell, California, on the West Coast. Wills and I here got offered scholarships to the Salem Institute, only to find out that somebody blew up the school over the summer and now we're here."

"Xander!" the redhead next to him quickly corrected, "We're actually from Sunny_dale_, California, and we've been best friends since Kindergarten. I've been trying to read up on Hogwarts, and there is a lot of information available, but it doesn't really make much sense to me. I read _Hogwarts, A History_, and it talks about the Four Houses and where their dorms are and the point system but it doesn't really talk about how students are chosen and go into each of the Houses, whether they do it alphabetically, which I really wouldn't like because then that means Xander and I wouldn't be in the same House and what if they do it by first name instead of last name and what if nobody likes me in it and no offense I really don't want to go to Slytherin cause they got the whole snake thing and snakes are reptiles and they remind me of frogs and I really don't like frogs..."

"Breathe, Willow," Xander put a calming hand on his friend's shoulder.

'_Blimey, she's just like Hermione... but worse! Wicked!_' Harry smiled, seeing Hermione move over next to Willow and start quizzing each other on their new favorite book.

"My name is Wednesday Adams," the pale-faced, dark-haired girl in funeral garb spoke in a straight-faced monotone. She said nothing else, and nobody was inclined to ask for more.

"I am Viktor von Doom, from Latveria," the final boy in the compartment finally spoke. Likewise, he was less than forthcoming for anything further.

"See? Wasn't too painful, was it?" Harry tried to keep the conversation going.

Another knock at the door came before anybody answered. Although Xander commented, "If we get the whole freaking train in here, I'm moving to my own compartment..."

This time Ron, being in the middle of the floor and needing to get up anyway, opened the door. On the other side was Neville, tears pooling in his eyes. Harry sighed, signalling Midnight it was time to track again. Only for the exclamation point above Neville's head to suddenly go yellow before Harry could say or do anything.

"Please! You have to help!" Neville was saying the moment the door was fully open. Everyone in the compartment stopped talking to stare. "Some of the older students... they've taken Trevor! Trevor, he's my f-familiar, he's a—"

"Uh, you might want to try finding a Prefect then, they're the ones that are supposed to help with this sort of thing. I mean, we're not even official students in here, yet!" Ron told him.

Harry frowned and stepped forward. Just before he spoke, he made a deliberate action of adjusting his Omnilens, though he didn't actually change modes. "Neville, calm down. Ron, seriously? He's practically in tears. What's going on anyway?"

"Somebody took Trevor, and now a bunch of 6th Year students have him and they won't give him back. I tried to find the Prefects, but they're still in their meeting in the First Car!" Neville wailed.

"That's terrible!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Please help!" Neville begged. "They're down in the Freight Car! They said they're going to—going to—going to disect and kill him!"

'_This train has a freight car? Since when?_' Harry asked himself, but then shook off the question. "I'll do what I can, though you should probably still get the Prefects involved. Just in case. Anybody else...? And you can't hear me, of course." He sighed when he realized the world had gone gray and they were all Paused.

***QUEST***

LEAPING LONGBOTTOMS

_"(TEAM) Unknown Enemies have taken Neville Longbottom's Familiar. Find the Enemies, subdue them, and retrieve the Familiar and return it to Neville Longbottom. Rewards: Neville RL(8), 110 EXP, +5 Charisma, 1 Skill Point, 50 Galleons."_

*Would You Like To Accept This Quest?*

**YES/NO**

"Of course _yes_!" he selected angrily. Unfortunately, as the screen disappeared, the world did not start up again. Instead a new screen appeared and all the people behind him lit up with color as numbers appeared over their heads.

***TEAM***

_"You are about to embark on a Team Quest. A Team consists of the Player and a minimum of 2, maximum of 6 NPC (Non-Player-Characters). Teams can only be formed with RL(7), unless the characters share a Title for a very specific type of Team Quest."_

*_Hint #41: "Members of your Team will always have your Level and Experience, but different Abilities and Skills and Spells. Choose Wisely when composing new Teams."_

Please Choose From The Following Who Joins Your Team:

Wednesday Adams - RL6

_"The Adams Clan is Creepy, Kooky, Mysterious, Spooky, and altogether ooky. Wednesday is the older of two children, and utterly ruthless, meticulous, homicidal, overall dangerous. Good for Battle and Puzzle solving, not so much for everything else."_

Status: Acquaintance

Raven Blackrose - RL7

_"The Black Rose Coven is practically royalty amongst American Witches and Wizards. Raven has been greatly influenced by her Father, who while never crossed the line, dabbles in the Dark Arts. Dark Arts and Defense Team Bonus, good for Battle and when dealing with nonhumans."_

Status: Companion

Tarot Blackrose - RL7

_"The Black Rose Coven is practically royalty amongst American Witches and Wizards. Tarot has been greatly influenced by her Mother, who strives to maintain Balance above all. Divination and Attack Team Bonus, good for Battle and when dealing with nonhumans."_

Status: Companion

Viktor Von Doom - RL5

_"Heir to the Latverian Royal Family. Secretive, Intelligent, Rutheless. Not to be trusted."_

Status: Neutral

Hermione Granger - RL8

_"First Generation Witch, soon to be dubbed the Smartest Witch of her Generation, braver than she looks, and smarter than her own good. She believes in following the rules, but will bend them for her friends. Intelligence Team Bonus, good for Battle, Puzzles, Social Quests, and Class Jobs."_

Status: Friend

Xander Harris - RL8

_"Best friend of Willow Rosenberg. Only son of disgraced Squibs of two Pureblood lines, Xander's future is uncertain at this point. Loyal to his friends, and braver than he is smart, but willing to do anything to protect what is precious to him. Balanced Team Bonus, good for Battle, Social Quests, and dealing with undead."_

Status: Friend

Amelia Pond - RL6

_"Best friend of Rory Williams. Met a strange man when she was a young girl, lives alone (for now) in her house that still has a crack in the wall of her bedroom. Good for Puzzles and Social Quests."_

Status: Acquaintance

Willow Rosenberg - RL8

_"Best friend of Xander Harris. First Generation Witch, more powerful than anyone suspects, and a future rival for Hermione's title of smartest witch. Intelligence and MP Team Bonus, good for Battle, Puzzles, Class Jobs, and dealing with undead."_

Status: Friend

Sabrina Spellman - RL7

_"Youngest of the Spellman Clan. If the Blackrose are royalty, the Spellmans are upper nobility. Can use wandless variations of equipped spells, in fact she doesn't even have a wand. MP Team Bonus, good for Puzzles, Social Quests, Class Jobs, and dealing with nonhumans."_

Status: Companion

Nanoha Takamichi - RL5

_"[][][][][][][][][][][][]"_

Status: Neutral

Harry had to stop his perusing there to double check. Yep, they were all in Japanese characters. Oh well, her RL status was only a 5, so he couldn't have picked her anyway. But damnit, now he was curious!

Rose Tyler - RL6

_"First Generation Witch, destined to meet the same man Amelia once encountered. Spunky, rash, street-wise from growing up without a father. Good for Puzzles and Social Quests."_

Status: Acquaintance

Ron Weasley - RL8

_"Youngest son of the Weasley Clan, sixth of seven children, desperate to prove himself, but lazy and lacks focus. Balanced Team Bonus, good for Battle and Social Quests."_

Status: Friend

Rory Williams - RL6

_"Best friend of Amelia Pond. Has a crush on Amy and will do anything for her, even die if he has to. Balanced Team Bonus, good for Battle, Puzzles and Social Quests."_

Status: Acquaintance

Zatanna Zatara - RL8

_"Only daughter of Giovanni Zatara, the World's Greatest Illusionist, who deals with demons, dark creatures, evil sorcerors, and aliens on a regular basis. She has the same power of casting spells by stating words of Intent backwards, practically on par with wandless casting. Attack and MP Team Bonus, good for Battle, Social Quests, and dealing with nonhumans."_

Status: Friend

***You have (6) positions available***

So, he couldn't just take everybody with him, and it was clear that some of them wouldn't work well with him in the first place, while others just wouldn't work well with each other. Also, all those Alerts finally made sense. Apparently just by having friendly conversations and introducing themselves was enough to get some people evolved to Friend status. That only five were at that status made it easy, but who to pick for the sixth spot? His first instinct was to choose either Raven or Tarot, but whichever he chose, the other might resent him or her sister over it. So that kind of meant he couldn't choose either. It also cemented his decision as there was only one other at RL7 for him to choose.

"Hermione, Xander, Willow, Sabrina, Ron and Zatanna," he selected. The screen instantly changed once he'd filled the six slots.

YOU HAVE SELECTED:

Hermione Granger

Xander Harris

Willow Rosenberg

Sabrina Spellman

Ron Weasley

Zatanna Zatara

*Are You Sure This Is The Team You Want?*

**YES/NO**

"Yes," he confirmed, intrigued as to what was about to happen.

***TEAM MAGE***

5% Attack Bonus (Zatanna)

+10 Intelligence (Hermione & Willow)

+25 MP (Willow, Sabrina & Zatanna)

+5 HP, +5 MP, +5 Stamina, +10 Charisma, +10 Stealth, +10 Intelligence, Spell: Sacrifice (_One team member loses all HP to defeat all enemies or heal all other Team member_) (Xander & Ron)

"Whoa, that is cool," Harry had to admit. Then he watched as his stats were added, _after the fact_ to the current list.

***TEAM MAGE***

10% Attack Bonus (Harry & Zatanna)

5% Defense Bonus (Harry)

+10 Intelligence (Hermione & Willow)

+50 MP (Harry, Willow, Sabrina & Zatanna)

+10 HP, +10 MP, +10 Stamina, +25 Charisma, +25 Stealth, +25 Intelligence, Spell: Sacrifice, Spell: Command (_Team Leader can order any team member to take a single action_) (Harry, Xander & Ron)

"Bloody hell, I rock! Attack, defense, MP, and that Balanced Team Bonus on top of all that? Sweet!"

Suddenly everything started up again and he briefly lost control as he found himself turning around and snapping out, "Hermione, Xander, Willow, Ron, Zatanna, Sabrina, come on, let's go!"

Then, whatever it was released him as he snapped out of it and shook his head. "I mean," he said to mollify his previous ordering around, "if you wouldn't mind, I could really use your help with this. Please?"

"Well," Sabrina, who'd been on the verge of shouting about being ordered around, changed her attitude at the much gentler attitude he'd initially displayed. "All right. Come on Salem, lets see if we can help."

"Fine," the black cat remarked, jumping down from his spot on the bench, "but this is such a bad idea."

"All you had to do was say so, Harry, no need for please with me," Zatanna teased, moving past him at the door. The others had already moved out into the hallway apparently, because he only saw those that he hadn't chosen left in the compartment. Stepping out into the train corridor, Harry experienced a moment of vertigo as things shifted around on him with little warning. Suddenly the hall, which had been the standard cramped size of your typical train hallway, was expanded out to the same size he recalled a Hogwarts Corridor was suppoed to be. Just ahead of him, Neville started to run towards the back of the train, saying, "Come on! Hurry!"

Looking behind him, at first he saw nothing, he and Neville were alone in the train corridor. Where had the others gone? Suspicious, he commanded, "Pause."

The world grayed out, except around him were six people fully colored and dressed in the same civilian clothes they'd been when he first met them on the Platform. Even Hermione, who by the time he'd joined the group in the compartment had changed to her school robes, was back in her sweatshirt and jeans. "Different," he admitted, turning his attention to the problem at hand.

END Level Four.


	5. Level Five: The Team Battle

Level Five: "_Team Battle_"

First thing to do, Harry decided after catching up with Neville in the first of the undoubtedly many freight cars, was he had to find out exactly what his 'team' could do. Team Bonus stuff aside, which was all kinds of great for his own stats, for all he knew none of them except Zatanna and Hermione had any spells equipped, and they may even have extra abilities that he didn't know about and wouldn't know to use because he didn't know about it. So when it was obvious there was going to be a 'battle' right out the gate, he Paused again, but this time while the others stood like living statues around him, he pulled his Grimoire from his Utility Belt.

Sure enough, there was a new 'chapter' entitled "Team (Mage)". 'Turning' to that page in the book, he soon was presented with all those in his team in a list, including himself up at the top. Just to be sure, he selected his own name first. Beneath it, a list of options appeared.

**Harry Potter**

- Stats

- Abilities

- Skills

- Inventory

- Equipment

- Bonus

He selected Equipment, and sure enough saw all that he had equipped, including his two familiars. He went through each of them one at a time, but halfway through he noticed a little note, like an Alert or an option selection of some kind. It just said "(*) Show All". Just to see what would happen, he pressed it. Instantly, all the things under his name were listed out in one giant list, even the stats of his Familiars!

"Useful," he commented, noting that the same option now said "Hide All". He backed out of his option and then one by one went through each of his teammates and did the Show All option, perused what they had or could do, and moved on to the next. Once he had all the information, only then did he go back and make changes, pulling things from their Inventory and equipping them appropriately. So that in the end, when he was ready to Start things back up, they looked like this;

**Hermione Granger**

- Stats

Level 12

HP: 310

MP: 320

Stamina: 300

Charisma: 30

Stealth: 27

Intelligence: 85

- Abilities

Photographic Memory, Skill Bonus: Spells, Puzzler:3, Spell Effect: Minor Protego (+), Fast Caster (+)

- Skills

Bookworm Bonus, Speed Read, Fast Learner, Charms, Transfiguration, Potions, Herbology, Trivia, ...

See More?

- Inventory

Money Bag, Wand, Clothes: Daily wear, Clothes: School Uniform#1, Bookmark of Protection,

Slim Bracer, Utility Belt: Lady's Purse, Books:...(See All?), Materials:...(See All?), Practical Shoes,

HP Potion, MP Potion.

- Equipment

Clothes: School Uniform#1 (+10% Defense, Spell Protection, Hogwarts Protection*)

Wand: Vine Wood and Dragon Heartstring

Utility Belt: Lady's Purse

Slim Bracer (Grants Ability 'Fast Caster', increases spell casting rate by 5%)

Bookmark of Protection (Grants Ability 'Spell Effect: Minor Protego', -10% to all spell or magic based attacks)

Practical Shoes (Permits 'Running' and improves movement with 1% less drain on Stamina)

(* Only when on Hogwarts grounds, or in Hogwarts Castle)

- Bonus

+5 Intelligence Bonus

**Xander Harris**

- Stats

Level 12

HP: 325

MP: 380

Stamina: 310

Charisma: 70

Stealth: 30

Intelligence: 35

- Abilities

Link, Magic Immunity:1, Natural Occlumens, One Who Sees (*), Spell Effect: Minor Protego (+)

- Skills

Quick Friend (Can raise RL with others more easily), Twinkee Grandmaster, ... (See More?)

- Inventory

Money Bag, Wand, Clothes: Old, Clothes: School Uniform#1, Utility Belt#1, Family Heirloom, HP Potion

- Equipment

Clothes: School Uniform#1

Wand: Willow and Dragon Heartstring

Utility Belt#1

Family Heirloom (Grants Ability 'Spell Effect: Minor Protego', -10% to all spell or magic based attacks)

Practical Shoes

- Bonus

Balanced Team Bonus: +1 HP, +1 MP, +1 Stamina, +5 Charisma, +5 Stealth, +5 Intelligence

**Willow Rosenberg**

- Stats

Level 12

HP: 310

MP: 410

Stamina: 300

Charisma: 25

Stealth: 30

Intelligence: 87

- Abilities

Link, Photographic Memory, Puzzler(*), Hacker(*), Spell Effect: Minor Protego (+), Artillery (+).

- Skills

Bookworm Bonus, Speed Read, Fast Learner, Charms, Transfiguration, Potions, Herbology, Trivia, ...

See More?

- Inventory

Money Bag, Wand, Clothes: Daily wear, Clothes: School Uniform#1, Bookmark of Protection,

Slim Armlet, Utility Belt: Lady's Purse, Books:...(See All?), Materials:...(See All?), HP Potion, MP Potion.

- Equipment

Clothes: School Uniform#1

Wand: Birch and Phoenix Feather

Utility Belt: Lady's Purse

Slim Armlet (Grants Ability 'Artillery', increases Attack range from 'Mid-Range' to 'Long-Range')

Bookmark of Protection

Practical Shoes

- Bonus

+5 Intelligence Bonus and +5 MP Bonus

**Sabrina Spellman**

- Stats

Level 12

HP: 310

MP: 415

Stamina: 300

Charisma: 70

Stealth: 20

Intelligence: 50

- Abilities

Natural Witch, Finger-Casting, Puzzler: 1, Skill Bonus: Transfiguration, Spell Effect: Minor Protego (+),

Salem Mischief

- Skills

Familiar Master (9), Bookworm Bonus, Transfiguration: 3, Charms, ... (See More?)

- Inventory

Money Bag, Wand, Clothes: Daily wear, Clothes: School Uniform#1, Bookmark of Protection, Utility Belt: LP

Grimoire: Spellman Family Magic Book, Books:...(See All?), Materials:...(See All?), HP Potion, MP Potion.

- Equipment

Clothes: School Uniform#1

Wand: Maple and Unicorn Hair

Utility Belt: Lady's Purse

Bookmark of Protection

Practical Shoes

Familiar: Salem

- Bonus

+5 MP Bonus

**Ron Weasley**

- Stats

Level 12

HP: 345

MP: 340

Stamina: 310

Charisma: 60

Stealth: 30

Intelligence: 35

- Abilities

Pureblood Bonus (+5 HP, +1% Attack, +10 Charisma), Spell Effect: Minor Protego (+)

- Skills

Chess Grandmaster, Fast Feaster(*) (Regenerate 5 points of HP for any food consumed), Quick Friend.

- Inventory

Wand, Clothes: Used, Clothes: School Uniform#1, Utility Belt#1, Ring of Protection, Packed Lunch, MP Potion

- Equipment

Clothes: School Uniform#1

Wand: Ash and Unicorn Hair

Utility Belt#1

Ring of Protection

Practical Shoes

- Bonus

Balanced Team Bonus: +1 HP, +1 MP, +1 Stamina, +5 Charisma, +5 Stealth, +5 Intelligence

**Zatanna Zatara**

- Stats

Level 12

HP: 310

MP: 400

Stamina: 305

Charisma: 45

Stealth: 47

Intelligence: 50

- Abilities

Zatara Trait: Reverse Casting, Extra Sense: Magic (Able to detect and track magical effects), Magic Imunity,

Magic Affinity: 1, Spell Effect: Minor Protego(+), Spell Effect: Minor Allure (+), Spell Effect: Minor Flight (+)

- Skills

Bookworm Bonus, Showmanship: 2, Speed Read, Charms, Transfiguration, Potions, Herbology, Trivia, ...

See More?

- Inventory

Money Bag, Wand, Clothes: Daily Wear, Clothes: School Uniform#1, Clothes: Costume#1, Utility Belt: LP,

Costume Pieces*: Top Hat, Jacket, Vest, Bow Tie, Fishnet Stockings, Slim Heels. Protection Flower: Plastic

(*Can only be worn with Clothes: Costume)

- Equipment

Clothes: Costume#1 (Grants +10 MP, +15% Defense, Spell Effect Minor Allure, Spell Effect: Minor Flight)

Wand: Teak and Dragon Heartstring

Utility Belt: Lady's Purse

Protection Flower: Plastic (Grants Spell Effect: Minor Protego)

- Bonus

+5% Attack Bonus and +5 MP Bonus

Once that was all squared away, Harry Started the Game back up, after witnessing his Team's change in attire that is, (Zatanna... just Wow!). It was a very good thing that he'd equipped them all when he did, because their stats beforehand had been... well not good. Not to mention he was right in that only Zatanna and Hermione had any spells equipped, and none of them had been what you might call 'Battle' spells. The moment they were past the first crate, some gnomes had appeared from the nooks and crannies of the crates packed there. Pulling his wand, he prepared to banish them with the Flippendo spell, but a screen popped up before he could.

***You Are About To Enter Battle!***

_"There are 3 different Battle Modes available for the Game. Please Choose From The Following:"_

Free-For-All: Based on fastest reaction time and who does the most damage soonest, just like in life.

Turn-Based: Based on the Character Stats to determine order and damage, everybody takes a turn.

Strategy-Based: Based on the Stats and Character Positions on the Field, more like chess.

Harry was stunned. He actually had no idea what it was asking him about here. He'd only ever been involved in real fights, nothing about this Turn and Strategy thing, and he knew from playing against Ron that he was horrible at chess! He quickly chose Free-For-All, since it said that bit about it being just like in life. Moments later, the screen disappeared and the gnomes started to swarm. Quickly getting over being surprised by something like that, Harry used his Omnilens ability to target and reverted to his original intention of using the Flippendo spell.

"_Flippendo_!" he cast, and moved to cast again, but to his surprise, from the end of his wand came seven streams of gold and red sparks of the Flippendo spell, hitting each of the gnomes he'd targeted. The rest of his Team, which remained 'behind' him and nearly invisible, took care of the rest, each firing their own Flippendo spell.

"Whoa!" Neville cried, standing in front of him rather than behind. "That was amazing Harry! You're powerful!"

"It's... nothing Neville. Come on, let's keep moving," he said.

They encountered another five gnome swarms by the time they'd gotten to the other side of the current freight car. Each time, when Harry had multiple targets highlighted, when he cast the spell, it was like he'd cast it for each and every one of them, rather than just the first one. If he hadn't said it already, he would be preaching it non-stop, he _LOVED_ his Omnilens!

At the door to the next car, they came across their first true obstacle. The door seemed to be warded somehow, as there was a visible energy barrier over it, preventing them from even trying to open it. Suddenly, Hermione, Willow, and Sabrina appeared right beside him, looking at the ward/lock. All those with the 'Puzzler' Ability he realized when they each reached out one hand to touch the warded door.

"It is a Team Lock ward," Willow pronounced after a few moments. "I agree," Hermione said a beat later, while Sabrina just nodded her head.

"That means," Salem spoke, appearing at their feet, "that you'll have to cast the Unlock Charm, _Alohomora _at it, but not just one of you, but however many locks are needed for this ward, and it has to be done simultaneously. You'll have to use the Command spell to do it right."

Getting over the fact that Sabrina's talking cat was giving him instructions, Harry turned his attention toward the problem at hand. "How many locks are part of this ward?" he asked the three Puzzlers.

"Three," they answered simultaneously.

Checking his Grimoire real quick, he saw who did and did not have the spell _Alohomora_. As luck would have it, Hermione, Sabrina and Willow each had learned and equipped the Unlock Spell. Quickly making sure that this Team Spell: Command was equipped, as well as reading through how to use it real quick, he nodded and pulled his wand, holding it at ready and then speaking the same way he did when making selections for Screens, he said, "Command: Hermione, Sabrina, Willow; use _Alohomora_ on the ward, now!"

The moment he said the word 'now', the three witches raised their wands and incanted the Unlock Spell, "_Alohomora_!" The spells hit the ward at the exact same moment and the ward disappeared and the door flung open, allowing them to proceed.

"Hm, good job," he said, but they'd already disappeared from his view. With a sigh, he briefly turned back and switched to X-Ray to see if he'd missed anything. There was a Skill Point hidden behind one of the crates, but he silently sent Midnight to gather it quickly, pleased to see that once it was acquired, it spread to every Team member. He'd been worried that he would have to pick and choose who got the Skill Points, but like with his Level and EXP, the Skill Points were applied evenly across the board.

"Come on! Hurry!" Neville repeated his earlier sound bite as he went through to the next car.

With a sigh, Harry and his Team followed. The next car, they were assaulted by Doxies, Fire Crabs and Fire Salamanders. Unfortunately, the best spells for dealing with the fire-based creatures, Harry did not have equipped, and the rest of the team didn't have at all. So he Paused real quick and pulled out his Grimoire and changed his Equipped Spells around a bit, as well as Hermione's and Zatanna's, the only other two that new water and ice based spells. The rest he tried to get them to use Flippendo on the Crabs, and the Stinging Jinx on the Doxies, but he saw no way of doing that. Then he remembered the Command spell.

He Started up again and then shouted, "Command; Everybody use _Flippendo _on the Crabs and the Stinging Jinx on the Doxies, leave the Salamanders to me, Hermione and Zatana! Then..." he suddenly lost his voice and an Alert appeared out of the corner of his eye.

*_You can only issue (3) commands with the Command Spell per use!_

He sighed and focused back on the fight, making sure to target the Salamanders before hitting them with the _Glacius_ spell, covering them in frost. Hermione used _Aquamantia_, and Zatanna used a Reverse Spell entitled "_Ezeerf!_" They all had to dodge the Doxies and fireballs flying, and mysteriously Neville had vanished entirely. He was just about to ask whose bright idea it was to have Fire Crabs and Fire Salamanders on a train made mostly of wood, when the creatures they were fighting got reinforcements from somewhere.

Harry hit upon a new strategy once he saw a number of the overturned Fire Crabs and ice statues left of his and the girls work on the Salamanders. Once a Salamander was frozen solid, and the Crab was on its back, he used a simple pushing spell to send the Crabs shooting at the Salamanders, where they collided and shattered. Ironically, both the Crab and the Salamander were shattered by this move, against all logic and facts of magic. Harry just blamed it on the Game and moved on. Once the Doxies were out of the air, they were easily dealt with and vanished the moment they hit the ground. With the occasional surge of reinforcements, it took longer than Harry felt it should have, but eventually they got them all, and just as soon as they did, Neville reappeared and shouted out his same sound bite.

Only to be met with another puzzle of a different nature the moment they rounded the corner.

Hermione, Sabrina and Willow appeared the moment they were confronted with a wall of crates with no visible way past it. Again, it was Willow who had the solution first, probably because out of the three of them, her Puzzler Ability was fully leveled up.

"We need to find some way of opening the passage back up. Look for a lever or switch or magical artifact," the redheaded girl instructed.

"We could try blasting our way through," Sabrina suggested, fingering her wand.

"No, Willow is right, we need to find some way of opening the passage, whether by moving boxes or by opening them in the right order," Hermione said.

"Hm," Harry mumbled and switched his Omnilens back to X-Ray mode. Xander was right, despite not being what it was advertized as, the feature was dead useful. It was tempting just to leave it on all the time. Sure enough, there right next to the wall of crates was a 'visible' stone gargoyle statue sitting in one of the side-craters. An Unlock spell cast at it had the statue revealed and the three Puzzlers congratulating him on finding it.

"I think this is a Lumogoyle," Hermione said after examining it closely.

"Right, you cast Lumos, or some other light spell on it and it shows the way to the next area!" Willow exclaimed.

"_Lumos_!" Harry cast at the statue. Sure enough, it lit up with some inner golden light and then shined that light onto the wall of crates, which somehow became translucent, showing Neville on the other side already.

"Stupid game," Harry sighed and lead the way through to the next compartment. There were more Doxies waiting, alongside what could have been Acromantula, but they were too small to be full grown. Regardless, there were cat and chiuaua sized spiders were on the floors and walls and hanging from the ceilings. Harry had them all use the Stinging Jinx and Flippendo mostly, as his first choice of Stupefy or Incendio were not among any of their spell options.

It took them twice as long as the last set of creatures, but that was because there were just so damn many of them, no need for further reinforcements. After the fighting was finally over, Harry checked everybody's stats, and distributed healing where necessary, thankfully not having to use up any of their collection of Game potions, as Harry and Zatanna both knew and could use healing spells.

In the third and final section of the second car, they faced the toughest creature challenge yet. Doxies, Pixies, Haunted Books that fired razer sharp pages at them that could probably cut steel! Harry kept everybody dodging and used the strongest offensive spell he had available, while everybody else used either Stinging Jinxes or _Rictusempra_ at them. Also, if it could be said as such, Harry was abusing the hell out of his multi-target abilitiy, and he felt no guilt about it whatsoever. He kind of wished he could share or even give his Omnilens to everybody in the Team all at once, but without actually purchasing one each and giving it to them individually, that wasn't going to happen.

He took out the Haunted Books first, as those flying pages of theirs counted as Enemies on their own and did lots of damage if they hit. Once the last of those were finally out of the picture, it was easy for him to help the rest in cleaning up the other flying menaces. He sent Midnight and Hedwig both to look for any hidden treasures once the fighting was actually complete, and got a couple Chocolate Frog Cards, and some other candies that made it so nobody needed healing spells this time around.

"OK, they should be through here," Neville indicated the door leading to the next freight car. "Are you sure you're ready for this?"

The way Neville asked the question actually made Harry Pause and double-check everybody's stats. He was glad he did so because apparently in the middle of the fight he'd gotten the Alert about being able to Level Up, but had missed it because he'd been too busy at the time. He quickly leveled himself up and applied Skill Points, and when prompted about it, he allowed everybody else to 'Auto' Level up, basically letting them choose for themselves where they wanted their Skill Points to go and everything. He also enabled Hedwig and Midnight's Battle Companion Abilities. He had a feeling that their addition was going to be needed in the upcoming fight. He wasn't surprised to see that Salem had no Battle Companion ability, instead something called Salem Mischief. When he checked to see what it was about, apparently in real world terms it meant that he always got into some kind of trouble and had to be bailed out by Sabrina in one way or another. In Game terms, however, it meant that he would show up randomly and either offer bits of advice, whether it was helpful or not wouldn't be known until after the fact, or in a fight he would drop some random item or run by and cause a chain of events in the environment that would cause significant damage to whoever was hit by it. So if Harry was observant, he could probably push the Enemy into being caught up in it rather than his Team.

"Yeah, let's go get Trevor back for you, Neville," Harry said once he'd Started things again.

"OK, I'll wait out here. Good luck!" Neville said, stepping to the side of the door, which opened on its own.

***BOSS BATTLE***

_"You Are About To Enter A Boss Battle. Are You Prepared?"_

**YES/NO**

Taking a deep breath, he selected, "Yes."

Just like that they walked into the blackened door and when Harry could see again, he and his Team mates, Hedwig 'hovering' above him with wings spread, Midnight crouched before him, all stood in front of three Third Years. Three very familiar Third Years.

"Fred? George? Lee?" Harry called. "What are you doing taking Neville's toad?"

"Toad? What toad?" Lee demanded. "I just wanted to trade that ickle Firstie my giant spider for his chimera!"

"Oh, look Fred," George spoke up, a dark and mischevious smirk on his face. "More Ickle Firsties, and Won-won is with them too."

"Has Won-won gone and made some friends?" Fred teased. "Get lost Firsties. Guess that scaredy Firstie went and tried to renig on our agreement. Well too bad, Lee's keeping the chimera. Here, you can give him Lee's spider."

All three Third Years laughed derisively and moments later an actual full grown Acromantula crawled out from behind the Thrid Years. It hissed and raised up on its legs, moving its forelegs menacingly.

Looking up at it, Harry could not help commenting, "Lee's spider was _not_ that big the first time around. Stupid game!" Harry gave the Commands to spread out, dodge the legs, and to use the same spells that had worked on the smallers spiders previously. Then he proceeded to fight an Acromantula on the Hogwarts Express as a First Year.

What made it worse was that the three Third Years did not stay out of the fight. They would often shoot distracting or debilitating spells on his Team, potentially enabling the giant spider to damage them further, but Harry was having none of it, either reversing or countering the spells, or attacking the spider enough that it couldn't take advantage of the disabled member of his Team. The only thing that gave them a respite from this was Salem occasionally going for a stroll across the luggage rack right above the Third Years, and they would be too busy digging themselves out and putting the luggage back up in the rack to continue harrassing them, allowing the First Years to do serious damage on the giant spider with no interference. Then, right when his Omnilens told him that the spider was on its last bit of HP, instead of harrassing them, the trio of troublemakers started casting Protegos on the spider, keeping them from ending the fight!

"Fine, be that way!" Harry then adjusted his stance and instead of shooting off one spell, he poured on the magic and turned one attack spell into a continuous attack beam that kept up for as long as he had the MP to keep it up for. The others mimicked him, and soon enough the Third Years couldn't keep their shields up under such pressure and three cycles of this later, the spider was knocked out and Lee was crying over his injured pet while Fred and George were teasing their brother rather mercilessly.

"All right, the ickle Firstie can keep his stupid 'Trevor'," Lee finally relented, putting his now 'normal' giant spider back into its cage and turning another, much larger cage over to the Team of First Years. "Come on, Fred, George. Let the ickle Firsties have their win."

"Well, they did play fair," Fred said.

"And they did let Ronniekins play with them," George agreed.

"Very well then," they said together. "Enjoy your Reward!" the two of them then handed over a treasure chest that soon was pouring out Skill Points, Cards, candies, and other Game assorted items. They got another Level Up out of it, and whats more, Harry found himself with a strange opportunity when they were left with just the caged box containing 'Trevor'. The moment Harry approached it, a screen came up in front of him.

***FAMILIAR: Chimera***

Name: Trevor

_"Chimera are a mix of different creatures in one. You have an open slot for a Familiar. Would You Like To Acquire This Familiar?"_

**YES/NO**

Harry was about to jump at the chance, but a niggling little voice at the back of his mind stopped him. If _he_ claimed 'Trevor' as his Familiar, then... then he would be stealing him from Neville. This is what the Quest mission talked about, returning the Familiar to _Neville_, not claiming it as his own. He figured the only reason he got a prompt about this was because he was a Familiar Grandmaster. If he'd only had Hedwig, or if all his slots were filled with just Hedwig and Midnight, then he was sure he wouldn't have even been offered this opportunity. He selected, "No."

***Are You Sure?***

**YES/NO**

"I'm sure, stop asking, give Trevor back to Neville, confirm, whatever!" Harry shouted at the screen. Yes was selected and then Neville raced forward from behind him, screaming, "Trevor!"

*_Your Relationship Status has Changed!_

Harry smiled, glad he'd made the right decision.

***QUEST COMPLETE***

LEAPING LONGBOTTOMS

_"Rewards: Neville RL(8), 110 EXP, +5 Charisma, 1 Skill Point, 50 Galleons."_

Then came another chime, indicating another Level Up. Harry sighed and almost regretted keeping the Game on Easy, but he was still new at this, and the chance for easy leveling was worth having to deal with it so regularly. Something else to get used to, the moment the Quest was done and the Rewards handed out and the Leveling up completed, Harry blinked, just blinked, and found himself back in the same compartment, with everyone exactly where they'd been when Neville had first knocked on the door. Except, now Neville was inside and seated next to Ron.

Stupid Game.

***HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY***

***HOGSMEADE STATION***

The moment they arrived, Harry found himself standing on the Platform alongside the other First Years, shuffling towards Hagrid who was calling for them, standing a fully body length above them. The moment _after_ they arrived, Harry walked smack dab into a new Quest Screen.

***QUEST***

THE WRONG SORT

_"This is the Final Quest for the Tutorial. After this, the Real Game begins. Choose your House Alignment, attend the Sorting Feast, and feel free to explore to your heart's content! Rewards: House Title, 1100 EXP, Reset to Level 1 on 'Normal' Level, where each level takes 1000 EXP times the number of the level on top of what has been added already, Keep current Spells, Abilities, Skills, and Items."_

***CONGRATULATIONS ON COMPLETING THE TUTORIAL!***

"Wait, what?!" Harry screamed out loud as the screen disappeared and he was left on the Platform with the other First Years and Hagrid. There was no answer.

END Level Five.


End file.
